Covid-19: Almost 6,000 new cases confirmed as Nphet does not 'want to go back to lockdown'

Dr Cillian De Gascun: 'We need to protect our health service, we need to protect society and we need to save as many lives as we can. File Picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) does not want to advise the government to introduce another period of lockdown.

However, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD and Nphet member Dr Cillian De Gascun says the high transmissibility of the Delta variant means basic public health measures will now have less impact than they had at the start of the pandemic.