The Government says it could reintroduce Covid restrictions in Ireland if cases were to surge this winter.
The number of people in hospital with Covid has "been edging" up in recent weeks, according to the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, however he added there is no sign yet of a surge.
More than 1.6 million positive Covid cases have been confirmed in Ireland to date. There are currently 442 patients in hospital with Covid, of which 16 are in ICU.
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It comes as a new Covid strain that's been dubbed a "nightmare variant" by some is rapidly doubling the number of infections in countries where it has been detected.
Known as XBB, the strain has been found in more than 17 countries in Asia and Europe.
It has been dubbed a "nightmare" by media in Asia because of how fast it spreads and how it appears to evade protection to those who are vaccinated or have natural immunity.
There are no signs it causes more serious illness, Mirror UK reports.
UC Berkeley infectious disease expert John Swartzberg told San Francisco Chronicle that the variant is "no different from the others".
Reacting to XBB being called a "nightmare", he said: "That is pretty irresponsible reporting because it’s impossible to know what all these variants mean.
“We are seeing a slew of new variants that are using a similar approach to survive — they are finding ways to evade the way we get immunity from vaccines and previous infection with changes on the spike protein.
"XBB is no different from the others.”
XBB is a mutation on Omicron BA.2.
It was first found in India in August and has since been detected in Bangladesh, Japan, Singapore, Denmakar and Australia.
Singapore Ministry of Health said XBB went from being responsible for 22 per cent of cases to 54 per cent of cases in one week. It added said there is no evidence that XBB causes more severe illness, although it appears resistant to treatments.
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