While Covid-19 is being kept under control in Ireland, variants of concern continue to pose a risk, the chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, has said.

According to Dr Holohan, NPHET is keeping a close eye on the variants as it prepares to advise the Government on any further easing of restrictions.

“NPHET is concerned about possible higher transmissibility of the so called Indian variant and its spread in other countries, as well as early reports of its impact on vaccine effectiveness.

“The public is keeping the disease under control and the HSE is increasing the number of people vaccinated every day, but the variant may nevertheless pose a risk to the progress we have made,” he said.

Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, warned that the Indian variant - B.1.617.2 - continues to increase, with 72 cases currently identified in Ireland.

“Given the size of our unvaccinated population and the apparent transmissibility of this variant, we would encourage people to remain vigilant and to continue to adhere to the public health guidance as the vaccine programme rolls out,” he commented.

According to Prof Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, despite the recent challenges faced by the health service as a result of the cyber attack on the HSE’s IT systems, “we continue to monitor key indicators of the disease in Ireland”.

“The number of people hospitalised and in ICU are stable, the daily incidence is stable, and the amount of people protected through vaccination continues to grow,” he noted.

As of 8am on Friday morning, there were 107 Covid patients hospitalised , 38 of whom were in ICU. A further 524 cases of the virus were reported on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, according to Prof Pete Lunn, of the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit, there has been an increase in “multiple forms of social activity”, such as more people going to work and more visits to homes.

“This is to be expected as restrictions lift. However, the data also reveal that these increases are much stronger among people who have been vaccinated. Most people who are not yet vaccinated are continuing to be cautious. Our data are consistent with the majority of people waiting until they are vaccinated before increasing their activity again,” he noted.