Prof Nolan said the public should “take stock” of having managed to reduce transmission of the virus to its current levels. “It is an important thing to remember that cases are still going down despite the fact that 90 per cent of the cases in this country are the B117 variant. In those countries a minority of cases are the more transmissible [B117] variant,” he said. The slow progress made in reducing case numbers is “largely down to the new variant”, Prof Nolan said, but added: “We are not stuck. A further 13 deaths from and 738 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by Nphet on Saturday.

Source: The Irish Times February 28, 2021 13:17 UTC