The Health Minister says the HSE's Covid-19 plan includes details of an emergency response, if new variants of concern come on-stream.
Stephen Donnelly circulated a memo to Cabinet Ministers this morning on the matter, alongside details of the main HSE winter plan.
The plan for the coming months will see the recruitment of an additional 500 healthcare staff, and site-level plans for individual hospitals.
The move comes as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in Cork say nurses are facing into extremely challenging and dangerous work environments this Winter. The union is calling for all private beds in the country to be used, to avoid pressure mounting on staff in public hospitals.
99 patients are being treated on trolleys at Cork's two emergency hospitals today.
Minister Donnelly says the new plan for Covid, will be overseen by the advisory group.
