THE DELTA variant currently makes up roughly 70% of Ireland's coronavirus cases, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned that a dreaded 'fourth wave' of Covid-19 is inbound, due to the prominence of the highly-transmissible Delta strain.
"Our full expectation is that were going to see a significant increase in transmission here," Dr Holohan said on Thursday evening.
"There's every reason to believe, and that's our belief, that we're facing a significant wave of Delta-driven transmission and we're going to be in the same situation in that respect as we think all of the rest of western Europe is going to experience, maybe at slightly different times."
Three weeks ago, the variant was believed to only make up 9% of Ireland's cases, but by the end of last week, health experts believed it accounted for over 50%.
Now, over the last few days it appears the figure has shot up dramatically again.
NPHET virologist Dr Cillian de Gascun said that there will be a further update on this analysis on Monday, but that "if we look at the preliminary data for the first half of this week, it's up at around 70%."
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn revealed that 5,000 Covid cases have been identified in Ireland over the past two weeks - 2,000 of which have been in Dublin - while 180 cases were traced back to the same pub in Co. Waterford, sparking a massive outbreak in the local community there.
The troubling statistics offer an explanation as to why NPHET urged the government to delay reopening plans.
On Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced that indoor dining would not be reopening as planned on July 5, and even suggested the country's hospitality sector might have to adopt a 'vaccine pass' system in order to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
