Cases of the feared Indian variant have risen to 61 in Ireland.
The dangerous Covid strain, officially called B.1.617.2, has been listed as a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organisation amid fears it could be more transmissible than the Kent mutation.
Cillian De Gascun has said that 61 cases of the Indian variant have been detected and that 41 of the cases are of concern.
The good news is that there is currently no evidence to suggest that the new variant is immune from vaccines.
As a result, those who are fully vaccinated should be protected.
Below, we take a closer look at B.1.617.2 and what it means for Ireland:
How many cases of it are in Ireland?
New figures from the HSE on Thursday revealed that 61 cases of the Indian variant have been found in the country.
Across the Irish sea, Boris Johnson said he was "anxious" about the B1.617.2 strain, which almost tripled in a week to 520 UK cases as of May 5.
What other variants are in Ireland?
At the moment, there are four designated variants of concern in Ireland; the UK and Indian variants, the Brazilian variant P1 and the South African variant B.1351
As a result of the new strain, India was added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list in April.
What are health experts saying about the Covid-19 disease incidence in Ireland?
Cillian De Gascun has said that 61 cases of the Indian variant have been detected and that 41 of the cases 'are of concern'.
Dr Cillian de Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said today: “While it’s important to remain vigilant in emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, current evidence indicates that the vaccines we have are very effective against all currently circulating variants so we would encourage everyone to get vaccinated when offered the opportunity.”
There is no indication yet that the Indian strain evades the protection offered by current vaccines.
This means even if it becomes more prevalent across Ireland and the UK it should not make most people seriously ill.
Public health experts say that widespread vaccinations and natural immunity mean it should not trigger death spikes seen during earlier waves.
The Indian strain contains two key mutations to the outer “spike” protein of the virus that attaches to human cells.
Speaking about the overall picture in Ireland, Professor Philip Nolan added: “The profile of COVID-19 in Ireland is generally stable with grounds for optimism.
"Disease incidence is stable and we are seeing improvements in some indicators.
"Hospital and ICU admissions are decreasing slowly, the 7 day moving average is reduced, the 5-day moving average is stable, the national positivity rate has reduced to 2.4% and incidence among all age groups is reducing.
“The data also reveals the positive effects of vaccination, not only incidence in the over 65 age groups below the national average and rapidly declining, but we are seeing a very large descrepancy in the probability of being hospitalised or dying.
"It is clear that vaccination not only decreases infection but also decreases the severity of any disease that breaks through.”
