HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry has said there are 180 cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in Ireland. There is a "big increase in transmissibility" of this variant, he said, especially among household contacts.
Dr Henry said it is "inevitable" the number of cases here will increase, "given its behaviour in England and Wales". He added that while it is to be welcomed that some hospitals are free of Covid, it should be treated with "a note of caution".
He has warned that people need to stick with public health guidelines and the vaccination programme to avoid a return to the the scale of the crisis in January, when the pandemic was "fire that was out of control".