Immunologist Professor Luke O'Neill has said that the next three or four weeks are critical in terms of Ireland's immediate future.
With lockdown measures beginning to ease, Dr O'Neill said the following to RTE: "We don't know what is going to happen with the variant that originated in India. If we see an increase in severe disease from the Indian variant in the UK, it might be time to slow down the reopening slightly here."
During the interview with Brendan O'Connor, he added: "We have a race now to get the vaccine out. Once Israel had reached 70% of people having the double shots, then they opened up more. We should be getting the double shots out as quickly as possible."
"That variant - the B-1617 it's called - is more transmissible. Again, in a crowd, it might transmit more. The question is was that variant there last night (during the scenes of crowds in Dublin? Let's hope it wasn't because that increases the risk even more. The good news is vaccines should protect against severe disease with that variant but still, it's more evidence that we've got to keep our guard up," said O'Neill.
Tànaiste Leo Varadkar was also a guest on RTÉ's This Week where he was asked about the Indian variant.
"What is different now is the vaccines, and they work against all variants. But only 20% of the population have been fully vaccinated, we want to get that to over 60% by the end of July."
The Taoiseach added: "We are encouraging people to get outdoors, it is much safer to be outdoors than indoors. But the rules still apply. Local lockdowns and restrictions are a policy option, they're there in the government's plan, and they are a policy option if we have an outbreak in a particular area, but we've had mixed results with them in the past.
As of Friday, the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) had discovered 97 cases of the most potent strain of the Indian variant via its sequencing programme.
155 cases involving different strains of the Indian variant have been detected in Ireland.
Mr Varadkar said the epidemiological situation will be reviewed at the end of the month before the Government gives their approval for the further easing of restrictions in July.
"We will look at cases, the R number, variants of concern, the vaccine programme and also, crucially, where we are with our hospitals," he said.
HSE CEO Paul Reid also said: "There's always a risk of complacency as society opens up further but one thing we know about this virus is that it has caught us at every stage and there's a strong potential for it to catch us again. So, it is about keeping diligent.
