Three cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 have been identified in Ireland.
Two of the three cases are associated with travel, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) briefing heard on Monday.
Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said the three cases were identified in the last couple of days.
"Public health investigations are ongoing, at least two of them are associated with travel, but there is more work ongoing at the moment," he said.
"At this stage, as with all of these variants of interest, we need to remain vigilant, it's important that we try and contain and control it locally but I suppose we probably still need more information and more evidence to give us an indication as to whether it is going to become a fourth variant of concern."
Scientists have sounded a more cautionary note, with one warning that it could potentially do more damage than the South Africa variant.
As questions about the Indian variant grow, here is everything we know about the mutant strain so far.
What is the Indian variant?
As things stand the mutant strain - known as B.1.617 - has been classified as a variant under investigation by Public Health England while scientists gather more data.
This is in contrast to the South African and Brazilian strains, which are considered variant of concern.
The variant, which was first detected in India, includes a number of mutations including E484Q, L452R, and P681R.
Two of the mutations may make it more resistant to vaccines - giving it the status of a "double mutant" variant - while a third could make it more transmissible.
However, the jury is very much still out as to whether this is the case.
One of the concerning mutations, L452R, is also found in a strain circulating in California, though there is no link between the viruses.
How big is the problem?
Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said the vast majority of cases in Ireland are the B117 variant, also known as the Kent variant.
"We know that AstraZeneca works very effectively against that variant, we don't know what new variants will arise and what impact they will have on any of the vaccines that we are using at the moment," he said.
"Just as we don't want new variants spreading or arising in this country because of their impact on AstraZeneca, equally we don't want any others impacting on any of the other vaccines."
Dr Glynn said there is an "ongoing improving situation" in terms of incidence and the numbers of people in hospital, as well as a stabilisation of numbers in critical care.
He said the five day moving average now at 364 cases per day, the lowest for "some months".
However he cautioned that although the country has come a long way, GPs are still seeing levels of disease activity equivalent to what they were seeing at the start of November.
No further deaths connected with Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland on Monday, while another 403 cases were confirmed.
On Monday morning, there were 183 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of which 50 were in intensive case.
As of April 17, 1,204,063 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Ireland, of which 852,189 were first doses, and 351,874 were second doses.
What is Ireland doing to stop its spread?
India has been added to the UK’s red-list countries for mandatory hotel quarantine after cases of the variant were found there as well.
It is still unclear if a similar decision will be made in Ireland about India.
People need to “take a breath” when it comes to Covid-19 variants and “not freak out about them” as more will follow in 2021, Dr Gerald Barry said.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, he said: "“It’s an interesting variant as it has a collection of mutations that are causing changes in the spike protein, and it’s a collection of changes that haven’t been seen before.
“While there is relatively little data on this variant, the mutations seen independently in other variants all indicated either that the virus will have increased transmissibility or may reduce the effectiveness of the current vaccines.
“That’s why there are concerns around this variant as it seems to have mutations that, in other variants, give it an advantage.
“We’re relying on the UK for data.. as they have in-depth sequencing and they have already found four mutations to this spike protein. While they are calling it a variant of interest, the suggestion is it will become a variant of concern”.
The UCD virology lecturer said that the Indian variant has mutations that make it worrying but there wasn't much data about it yet.
The virologist said he'd agree that 2021 will be 'the year of the variant' and predicted that many more will come.
Dr Barry called on people to “take a breath when it comes to variants and not freak out about them” as we will be hearing about “plenty more” of them this year.
He added that Covid-19 is constantly learning about how to infect humans and live with us, adding that “it hadn’t reached its ‘perfect state’ yet”.
“It’s likely that other changes are going to continue to happen. The concern would be that a variant would pop up and would be resistant to the vaccines we’re using."
