Passengers arriving into Ireland from Britain are being advised to take antigen tests for five days after arrival.

The new advice was published after Government got an updated public health assessment of the Omicron variant.

Passengers should take their first test on the day they arrive and continue to do so for five days.

Anyone who develops symptoms or returns a positive result should self-isolate and take a PCR test immediately.

There have now been six confirmed cases of the variant in Ireland, while three cases were confirmed in the North earlier this week.

In Britain meanwhile, a total of 817 cases had been confirmed by last night.

The UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the UK could have around one million cases by the end of the year.

While the variant appears to be transmitting at a faster rate than Delta, it remains unclear how severe it is or how effective current vaccines are against it.

The variant was first detected in southern Africa and travel to Ireland is currently banned from seven countries in the area.

Yesterday the World Health Organisation noted that cases in Africa surged by 93% last week; however, there are “signs of hope” as hospitalisations across South Africa remain low.

It follows a number of early studies suggesting Omicron may cause less severe illness.

The European Centre for Disease Control said a total of 402 Omicron cases have now been detected by 21 European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries.

It said no severe cases or deaths have yet been reported – with all cases for which there is available information on severity “either asymptomatic or mild”.

It said an increasing number of cases are now linked to community transmission rather than international travel.

As of yesterday morning, nearly 1,800 Omicron cases had been reported in 57 countries across the world.

The WHO said travel restrictions targeting African countries are “hard to justify” given how widespread the variant now is.