Young people in Athlone are being urged to come forward for Covid testing after a suspected outbreak of the Delta variant in the Westmeath town.
As many as 14 cases of the strain, which originated in India, have been recorded and authorities said that these cases are associated with socialising that occurred down by the river on the west side of the town on Friday, June 11.
There have also been reports of house parties that night.
Appearing on Morning Ireland on Tuesday, HSE Midlands Director Dr Una Fallon said: "Over this weekend, it became apparent that there were a cluster of cases that were associated with socialising in that area in Athlone. The key timing of that was Friday, June 11.
"It's difficult for us to control this type of setting - we can have a school cluster or a workplace outbreak and it's easy to engage with stakeholders and get a precise list of who was exposed, get close contacts and all the rest. But when we have something like this which is really much more vague, all we can do is appeal to the community who were there or if they are connected to it is to present for testing."
There is concern from officials that a lot of the confirmed cases will turn out to be of the dangerous Delta variant.
Dr Fallon added: "We've identified it as probably the Delta variant and we know there are 14 primary cases already associated with the cluster. Each of those live in homes and households and have jobs so there are other links to that cluster.
"When we have outbreaks, they extend - their tentacles stretch far and wide, we saw that in the first three waves. Protect people and come forward for testing. That is our message to those at this event. We don't want them to potentially spread this further in work or at other gatherings like funerals.
"We have a pop-up testing centre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for people to come and get tested."
