A second case of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in Ireland.
The first recording of the dangerous new strain of Covid was noted here on December 1.
And on Thursday, the latest update from the state’s National Virus Reference Laboratory has confirmed the second.
One of the cases is in Dublin, the other in Meath according to the latest data available.
Speaking at the weekly HSE Covid-19 briefing earlier on Thursday, chief executive Paul Reid said that he expected Omicron to become more dominant in Ireland and that the HSE was planning for this but that it was still unknown when this would happen.
“We expect it is only a matter of time before we are looking at significant numbers of cases of Omicron. We expect it to become more dominant. The timeframe is unknown,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has apologised to the public who were left queuing for hours or turned away from walk-in vaccination centres on Thursday.
The HSE’s vaccination centres struggled to cope with demand for booster jabs with frustrated members of the public being turned away by staff at the vaccination centre at UCD.
The UCD campus and Croke Park centres hit full capacity early on Thursday morning.
The HSE had admitted there had been IT issues with the roll-out of the booster programme.
Addressing the fiasco in the Dáil, Mr Varadkar said he was sorry that people were not able to get their third dose, something that the Taoiseach has been urging people to get.
Mr Varadkar said: “I just want to express my regrets and apologise on behalf of the Government and HSE for the inconvenience faced by people this morning who were queuing for their dose and weren’t able to get it.
“In the round, the third dose programme is going very well, over a million people in Ireland have received their third dose.
“I think we’re very close to the top of the league table in the European Union in terms of third doses.
