More transmissible Delta variant now accounts for 70% of Covid-19 cases

HSE chief executive Paul Reid, Anne O'Connor, chief operations officer with the HSE; Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer, HSE, and Damien McCallion, national lead of the HSE vaccination programme at Dr Steevens’ Hospital for the weekly HSE operational update on the response to Covid-19. Picture: Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland

Dr Cillian De Gascun, from the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said there will be an update on the prevalence of the variant next Monday, but "if we look at the preliminary data for the first half of this week, it’s up at around 70%”.

Over the past three weeks, he said Delta has risen from 9% of cases one week, to 28% the next and then to 55% at the end of last week.