Infectious disease consultant says more data is needed on the transmissibility of the Indian variant of Covid-19

A UK study's found the two main vaccines can protect against the strain

Two Pfizer jabs offer up to 88 percent protection, while both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine make it at least 60 percent effective.

72 cases of the Indian variant have been detected in Ireland. 

Dr Eoghan De Barra says we need to know how quickly it spreads: 

"Initial data suggests that vaccines that we do have protected reasonably well against this various but again we need more information and that should come in the next week or so from the UK, this is going to be the pattern of things through the coming months and potentially years where there will be variants that emerge, they'll need to be assessed their impact impacts of the vaccines on them."