A Kildare health professor says the outbreak of Covid-19 in Naas General Hospital could be linked to the clusters in meat plants.
The facility has shut a ward to new admissions after a staff member reportedly tested positive for the virus.
A partial lockdown is in place in Kildare, Laois and Offaly, after hundreds of cases in meat processing plants.
Immunology professor Paul Moynagh, from Maynooth University, hopes the Naas Hospital outbreak isn't connected to that: