There are “serious concerns” over a “rapid” increase in cases of Covid-19 in Limerick in recent days, Public Health Mid-West has said.

Provisional data shows there have been 137 new cases of Covid-19 in Co Limerick from last Sunday to this Thursday with 46 new cases recorded on Thursday.

Wednesday saw 38 new cases, while there were 22 cases confirmed on Tuesday, 20 on Monday and 11 on Sunday.

Public Health Mid-West said the rise in cases is attributable to social gatherings in the county in the last two weeks.

“We have not seen this level of infection in the community since early March, which is a very worrying trend,” said Dr Mai Mannix, director of Public Health Mid-West.

The body said activities that have contributed to the increased spread of Covid include house parties, indoor gatherings, social gatherings surrounding Eid celebrations, and “significant onward transmission from weekend social events into workplaces”.

Dr Mannix warned that if daily cases continue at the current rate, “we will find ourselves in a very troubling position”.

Public Health Mid-West said its priority was now to identify and isolate new cases, and then begin the process of contact tracing.

“The faster this happens, the faster we can control the spread of Covid-19,” a spokesperson said.

“If you have symptoms or are concerned you have been exposed to possible infection, please make attempts to arrange a PCR test at Limerick Covid Test Centre.”

While the cyber-attack on the HSE IT systems has caused “significant disruption” to public health, the body said it was in a “strong position to swiftly manage new outbreaks”.

Meanwhile, there have been 524 new cases confirmed nationally today, with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan saying the rising number of cases of the ‘Indian variant’ of Covid-19 is a “dark cloud on the horizon”.

The variant is suspected to be more infectious than the now-dominant UK variant but there is no evidence to suggest it causes more severe illness.