Eight European countries have confirmed cases of a new highly-transmissible coronavirus strain that originated in Britain.
The strain, responsible for a 50 country-wide travel ban to the UK, is feared to be up to 70% more contagious than the current COVID-19 strain.
France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden have all reported cases in recent days.
Each infection has been linked to people who had returned from the UK for Christmas.
Scientists say the new variant is considerably more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected.
Leading immunologist, professor Luke O'Neill said the variant had been spotted earlier in the year, but now evidence seems to suggest it does indeed increase transmission of the virus.
He explained: "They've noticed this variant going up and up and up in London, say, and it correlates then with increased spread.
"There is evidence that the bits that have changed may make it stick more to your lung cells... it seems to make the spike protein more sticky."
He said human behaviour - such as people not following guidelines - could be a factor in the spread of the virus, but there is some biochemical evidence behind the current concern in the UK.
He explained: "It did go from 28% in London in November to 62%... that's a rapid growth. Can that just be explained by human behaviour? It seems unlikely... it probably is more transmissible."
Closer to home, the first delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 arrived into Ireland today.
Taking to Twitter to share the news, CEO of the HSE Paul Reid wrote: "Its arrived! Taking delivery of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine into our Cold Chain Storage this morning. We can now have a "twin track" approach to our response to COVID-18.
"Public health measures along with the vaccine, for a brighter future."
In terms of a national rollout, Taoiseach Martin has assured that normal life will not return until the summer at the earliest and the return to normal will be “tentative”.
“I think the first six months of 2021 will see improvements but we certainly won’t have normality in the first six months as we knew it,” he told the Dáil.
