Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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761. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the lack of statistics from the HSE regarding the number of children who have been hospitalised with Covid-19 since December 2021 in the context of the high number of Covid-19 infections being reported in children during January 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5419/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As of 14^thFebruary, there are 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospital in the three CHI hospitals. There were 25 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the CHI hospitals as of 7^thFebruary. The peak number of COVID-19 cases in CHI was on 10^thJanuary 2022 (26). As of 14^thFebruary, there were 3 confirmed COVID-19 cases in ICU in the three CHI hospitals.

Given the surge in cases due to Omicron, data based on notifications to CIDR for late December 2021, and January 2022, do not accurately reflect time-series trends. Due to a surge in case numbers, the turnaround time for processing notifications on CIDR increased. Notifications between 19/12/2021 and 15/01/2022 (week 51, 2021 to week 2, 2022) are reduced, while notifications between 16/01/2022 and 29/01/2022 (weeks 3 and 4, 2022) are inflated compared to cases diagnosed during these weeks.

The latest ‘Weekly Report on the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland’ from the HPSC for Week 5 2022, www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/surveillance/epidemiologyofcovid-19inirelandweeklyreports/COVID-19%20Weekly%20Report_Slidset_HPSC_week_5_v1.2_website.pdf, includes details of the distribution of hospitalised cases by age group for Wave 4 and Wave 5. Given the issues in relation to week of notification of cases, for Wave 5 this data is presented by the week of the ‘Epi date’ which is a more accurate reflection of time-series trends.