Gyms and non-essential retail services are also set to close as a result.
Full Level 5 restrictions are set to be reintroduced in Ireland as Cabinet meets on Wednesday to consider the response to the record number of Covid-19 cases in the country.
Multiple reports suggest that a return to full Level 5 restrictions is on the cards, removing the specific exceptions that had been introduced just before Christmas.
As a result, the country is set to return to a full Level 5 lockdown that had been in place from late October to the start of December.
Such a move would lead to:
- The reintroduction of a travel limit of 5km from people’s homes for non-essential reasons
- Closure of non-essential retail services
- Closure of gyms and leisure centres
- A ban on household visits prior to 1 January
Level 5 measures can be viewed in full here.
While Level 5 measures had been reintroduced from Christmas Eve last Thursday (24 December), specific exceptions allowed gyms and non-essential retail to remain open, measures which were due for review in early January.
Those exceptions are set to be removed following the meeting of Cabinet on Wednesday, as is an exception which allowed visits from a maximum of one other household from 27 December to 1 January, with the government believed to be conscious of the capacity for the spread of the virus from gatherings on New Year’s Eve tomorrow (31 December).
The likely return to full Level 5 restrictions comes after 1,546 new cases of Covid-19 and nine Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Tuesday, a day on which the first Covid-19 vaccinations were administered in the Republic of Ireland.
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