While we are all concerned here in Ireland to see COVID case numbers rise to levels we recall from lockdown in March, it's important to note that we are detecting more cases: we have better testing and are screening whole workplaces, even completely symptom-free people.

Therefore, we need to be very cautious in comparing current case numbers to numbers from a few months ago. However, hospitalisations (and deaths, but we have very few) are better to compare, as they generally independent of testing criteria.

I'm glad to see the @HSELive COVID19 app now shows hospitalisation stats on its updates screen, as these are important to monitor if we want to see if the situation is getting worse independent of testing.

The other very important stat to watch is the R number. In the most NPHET recent briefing, @President_MU said they estimate it to be 1.0-1.2, which is a big improvement on two weeks before (about 1.8), but we still need to all work hard and bring it below 1.0. (End of thread.)