12 hospital admissions in the last 24 hours is the highest since May 27th.

13 fighting for their life in ICU is the highest since June 22nd and included a toddler admitted last week.

All the bickering on social media is just noise.

Here's my own little speech for everyone:

In recent weeks, multiple people who tested positive had over 50 close contacts in different parts of the country.

FIFTY.

No government can ever control how many friends or family we spend time with, or watch every house for a party, that will always be a choice in a democracy.

Median number of close contacts is 4 ish, average is closer to 7.

What that means in plain English is most people in Ireland are behaving sensibly and following advice.

It also means a small minority of people are having ridiculous amounts of contacts, bringing the average up.

The way you lose sight of a virus is by super-spreaders i.e. large amounts of close contacts.

If an infectious person has 50 close contacts, identifying them all is near-impossible, contacting them all takes days.

In the meantime, they are potentially passing the virus on.

It's essentially the Usual Suspects scenario.

You finally figure out who Keyser Soze is and he's already long gone.

That's how chains of transmission strengthen.

You only break them by having low amounts of contacts, that can be quickly identified and traced.

That can't be solved for us by others, it can only come from within.

It's not just teenagers either.

This is people of all ages making choices to attend indoor mass gatherings and if it continues we will continue to lose the trail of the virus.

Ireland are only a small handful of super-spreading events away from losing sight of Covid completely.

Right now our 14-day incidence of 45.8 per 100,000 is close to twice as better as the European average, which has raced towards 100.0.

We're on the precipice of joining them.

For the last month all I heard was "it's only young people" and for the last month I've warned it will spread to older people.

There was 126 cases in the 65-74 age group for July and August combined.

There is 120 cases in the 65-74 age group first fortnight in September.

At current rate of infection, we will have the entire summer amount of cases in the over 65's within the next 4 days.

That's more cases than the whole of June, July, August in the space of 3 weeks in September.

Many of those older people are going to die.

I know nowadays JFK's inaugural is the subject of much parody and ridicule.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Now would be a very good time to take those words earnestly.

50 close contacts isn't helping Ireland.

If all of this continues, there is not one doubt in my mind hundreds will die in the coming 2 months.

I'm watching it unfold in Spain.

Their 14-day cumulative deaths per 100,000 has gone from 0.1 (where Ireland are today) to 1.6 per 100,000 and is heading towards 4.0 rapidly.

Ireland can and will follow that trend.

I know that because we already are, to the inch, we're just 4 weeks behind them.

100 people will die every week here in mid-to-late October if we don't find a way to push the disease back on its march.

Blame and division won't turn back the tide. Pointing fingers at young people won't do it either.

Washing your hands, wearing a mask, 2 meters, reduce close contacts.

That's the stuff proven to work.

This remains a global pandemic that is killing so many people worldwide every day.

Irish people did a phenomenal job early summer, and we repelled that wave of death.

We can do it again.

This is still a national crisis. Stick together.