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The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) reported two deaths and 511 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday afternoon.
There have now been a total of 4,715 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland and a total of 237,695 confirmed cases in Ireland.
As of March 31, 865,460 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered in Ireland, 619,003 people had received their first dose and 246,457 people their second.
Meanwhile, no deaths from Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland on Saturday.
A total of 84 people tested positive for the virus in the north in the past 24 hours, the Health Department confirmed Saturday afternoon.
Earlier on Saturday, The Irish Times reported that variants of the coronavirus classified by public health officials as “concerning” are being detected in the state without a link to international travel.
The problem is mentioned in the minutes of a Nphet meeting last month, which says that “complex contact tracing” of these cases was ongoing.
According to the minutes released this week, Nphet heard that the Center for Health Protection Surveillance “continues to monitor probable cases of new variants in clusters of new outbreaks. Notably, the ongoing complex contact tracing of some groups of Likely Variants of Concern has yet to find a link to international travel. “
Dr. Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, expressed concern on Friday about the identification of Covid-19 variants without a link to travel.
“We have the opportunity to try to control the importation of the other variants of interest,” he said. “Ideally, we would like to ensure that there are no transmission networks for these variants in the community that we are not aware of.
Dr de Gascun said the “biggest concern” would be an undetected case of a variant in a care facility, workplace or school leading to a “super broadcast event.”
Meanwhile, at RTÉ, an assistant professor of virology at UCD said that Covid-19 variants are now being detected in Ireland through community transmission, not related to travel.
Speaking on RTÉ Saturday with Katie Hannon, Dr Gerald Barry said that currently 32 cases of the variant first identified in South Africa have been confirmed in Ireland, while 12 cases of P1 and 14 cases of P2, both identified for the first time in Brazil. – have also been confirmed.
Dr. Barry said that while “some” of these cases are due to travel, others are due to community transmission.
“That suggests that these variants are circulating in the community,” he said.
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