At the end of June, NPHET outlined a series of possible scenarios for Ireland's fourth wave. The most pessimistic predicted 1,000 cases a day by the end of July.
On Thursday, two weeks ahead of schedule, we hit that target. Yesterday, cases hit almost 1,200. The surge caused by the Delta variant is well under way.
Ireland is entering a new phase of the pandemic involving dramatically rising cases but with the buttress of vaccinations. So far, 60% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated while 75% have been partially vaccinated.
The risk now is centred on younger unvaccinated people. And while public health experts and senior Government members have been repeating the line that the link between cases and serious illness has been