A senior member of NPHET says Covid-19 variants with no link to international travel have been detected in the State.
It comes as the UK variant of the virus is being blamed for the number of cases plateauing here.
591 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed last night, along with 8 further deaths.
The 14-day incidence rate now stands at 166 cases per 100-thousand people.
Dr Mary Favier says variants with no link to travel have been discovered in "very small numbers" but it's concerning.
"The Virus Reference Laboratory are doing a very good job."
"They're checking for variants in many many samples."
"Some of them have been found in very small numbers, that are associated with people who have no travel background."
"So there's lots of extra work going on there."
She says there's concern Covid-19 variants will undermine the vaccination programme.
Dr Favier says different variants have been detected in the country in the last week:
She says the "variants of concern" are from South Africa and Brazil.
Those could undermine the vaccination programme, possibly only making it half as effective.
Dr Favier's worried that even in a situation where people are doing everything right, we could end up "effectively back to square one."
