LATEST: Over 23,000 new cases of virus as expert warns new variant ‘the most infectious’
A total of 23,702 new cases of Covid-19 were confimed this evening.
The Department of Health announced it has been notified of 7,729 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19, as well as 15,973 positive antigen tests logged through the HSE portal.
As of 8am today, 1,338 Covid-19 patients were in hospital, an increase of 30 on yesterday. Of these, 61 patients are being treated in ICU, an increase of 12.
The latest figures comes as a leading expert warned the new BA2 variant of Covid-19 is much more infectious and is spreading more and more widely
And Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne the new strain is “a sister of Omicron” and could be “the most infectious virus we’ve seen”.
