Ireland has now detected 115 cases of the Indian variant – up from 97 last Friday.

The Chief Medical Officer is warning that the variant – now renamed ‘Delta’ – could easily become the dominant strain in Ireland if people aren't careful.

The strain has sparked an increase in cases and hospital admissions in many parts of the UK.

Dr Tony Holohan said he still expects restrictions to be eased as planned over the summer months.

“We do have to enter the caveats of the Indian variants and the UK is in a situation at the moment where that now in effect in terms of the numbers of transmission they have in the UK is the dominant variant,” he said.

“We are not in that position, we don’t want to get into that position but we could easily find ourselves in that position if we are not careful.

“Secondly, we don’t have as many people in our population vaccinated as is currently the situation in the UK.”

He was speaking as a further 407 COVID cases were announced this afternoon.

Last night, there were 93 coronavirus patients in Irish hospitals – down six on this day last week.

There were 34 in ICU, down seven on last week.

Dr Cillian de Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said he does not believe there is cause for concern from the Delta variant yet.

“It would appear to be stable but we are obviously still concerned that we have a potentially more transmissible virus circulating in the community at some level,” he said.

“All it really takes is for one of the viruses to get into a super spreading event and then we could find ourselves in significant trouble.

“So, I think the data is probably reassuring but I suppose we still need to be vigilant.”

Reporting from Stephen Murphy