From tomorrow, household visits will be banned and gyms and non-essential retail services will close.
The government has confirmed that schools in the Republic of Ireland are to remain closed until 11 January and that full Level 5 measures will return from tomorrow (31 December) until at least 31 January.
Following a meeting of Cabinet on Wednesday afternoon, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed an immediate return to Level 5 restrictions from tomorrow, removing the specific exceptions that had been introduced just before Christmas.
This means that, as of midnight tonight, the following measures will be introduced:
- The reintroduction of a travel limit of 5km from people’s homes for non-essential reasons
- Household visits will be banned (apart from specific exceptions – essential family reasons or to those in your support bubble)
From close of business tomorrow meanwhile, the following measures will be introduced:
- Closure of non-essential retail services
- Closure of gyms and leisure centres
While schools will remain closed until 11 January, childcare and creche facilities will remain open.
Weddings with up to 25 guests will be allowed up to and including 2 January, weddings with a maximum of six guests can take place from 3 January. Funerals with up to 10 mourners will be permitted.
Level 5 measures can be viewed in full here.
The announcement by the Taoiseach comes after a new daily record of 1,718 new cases of Covid-19, as well as 13 more deaths, were reported on Wednesday.
At a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, meanwhile, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid issued an “urgent and serious” call to the Irish public to take “immediate actions” to curb the spread of the virus, describing the current situation as “very alarming”.
Speaking at the same briefing, the HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said that the current reproductive rate of Covid-19 in Ireland is 1.8 and even a reduction to 1.4 could still mean as many as 3,000 cases per day by the end of January.
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