Chief Medical Officers highlighted their 'growing concerns' with the Delta variant

Tony Holohan and Michael McBride have appealed to the public to avoid activities that may put people at risk of contracting Covid-19

They've also called for 'continued caution' despite low numbers of hospitalisations in both jurisdictions.

Public health expert, Professor Anthony Staines, says that's sound advice as the variant is more transmissible: 

"The Delta variant, it definitely spreads faster than the variant we have now, and we've seen this in the UK where it's gone from nothing to being almost all the cases in a fairly short space of time. And there is some evidence that it's more severe, that you're more likely to be hospitalised with it, more likely to get quite sick with it, if you get it, not certain, but I think certain that it transmits more.