The Health Service Executive warned of a new form of Covid-19 called SARS which it said was linked to 644 new cases of the virus last week, a 50% increase from the previous week, reports RTE.
It has also been linked to hospital outbreaks.
However, there is no evidence of an increase in infection severity, and the government has no plans for public health restrictions.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, HSE’s clinical director, Dr Colm Henry, said the variant had not caused any increase in intensive care admissions but was attributed to an increase in community transmission in recent weeks.
As the virus mutates, he calls Eris an Omicron variant that has been seen in hospitals before.
He said the mutation replaces the existing form of the virus.
“What we’re seeing now is this, EG.5. It’s a derivative of the known variant Omicron variant, and it is more transmissible and certainly driving community transmission in recent weeks. Not just here, but internationally and accounting now for a significant proportion of increased hospital activity of Covid-19. The WHO have labeled this sub-variant a variant of interest, meaning they’ll be enhanced surveillance across all member states to see if there’s any more serious illness, if it’s driving increased admissions to intensive care units, and if healthcare systems are under pressure,” Dr Henry said, reports RTE.
Amid the annual concern about winter illnesses, last year saw a surge in Covid-19 infections, coinciding with a particularly high number of influenza and RSV cases.
This has put health systems around the world under tremendous pressure, he said.
Dr Henry said plans for the winter season were aimed at easing pressure on the healthcare system, such as introducing a Covid-19 vaccination program in the fall aimed at those most vulnerable and at risk of severe illness.
“But the vaccine we intend to use for this coming autumn season is under evaluation by the EMA, and that evaluation will be complete by the end of August,” Dr Henry said, reports RTE.
Healthcare workers are advised to wear masks when working with patients with confirmed or suspected Covid-19.
Dr Henry said: “It remains within the power of all healthcare settings, to the hospitals and nursing homes or otherwise, to mandate the use of masks if the local risk assessment determines if there is particularly high levels of community transmission or high risk of Covid-19 in any particular setting,” reports RTE.
“And of course, maximizing the impact and the uptake of vaccines among healthcare workers for this coming autumn,” he added, reports RTE.
“Now that conversion, that link between infection and serious illness is much, much weakened, and that’s because of the heightened immunity of our population through either natural infection or through vaccination,” he said, reports RTE.
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