He made the comments as Ireland saw its busiest day for community testing.
HSE chief Paul Reid has said it looks like a spike in Covid-19 infections in Ireland is “beginning to kick off”.
He made the comment at a HSE briefing on Wednesday (22 December) after Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week said Ireland was going to see a “massive rise in infections” due to the Omicron variant.
During the briefing, HSE Vaccination Lead Damien McCallion stated the health service has seen an increase in community referrals over the last seven days.
He also said the positivity rate for community testing has risen and is now standing at 21.2%.
“Yesterday [Tuesday, 21 December] was our busiest day so far in community testing with nearly 32,000 testing appointments offered across our testing sites,” he explained.
Later in the briefing, Reid was asked if these figures suggested Ireland was seeing the start of a spike in Covid infections.
“What is concerning, particularly the last couple of days, is the positivity level of the testing,” the HSE chief said.
“Over 20% and the high numbers of swabs in the community.
“I think it was 30,000 swabs in the community yesterday so the volume does look like now it’s beginning to kick off and the positivity level is a high concern.”
Also during the briefing, Reid has asked the Irish public to be mindful of healthcare staff over the busy Christmas period.
“Whether you’re attending a vaccination centre for your booster or a testing centre for your PCR swab or indeed one of our healthcare settings, please be kind to our healthcare staff,” he said.
“They are under significant pressure at this point in time.”
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