IRELAND will go into lockdown from midnight tonight for two weeks, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced.
From tonight until Easter Sunday, April 12, everyone must stay at home in all-bar-essential circumstances.
Varadkar announced the most extreme measures in a televised public briefing tonight as the fight against the spread of Covid-19 steps up.
This was the third set of measures announced by the Government and comes on the back of a wave of new Covid-19 cases and a sharp rise in the number of deaths.
“The aim of every action has been to reduce the impact of the storm, to slow the virus down, to push it back and to contain it,” Varadkar said.
“Everyone must stay at home in all circumstances.”
Travel to and from work will only be permitted where work is ‘essential’.
Over-70s and those in ‘specified categories of people who are vulnerable’ will now be ‘cocooned’.
All public and private gatherings of any unit are prohibited.
“This includes social family reasons,” Varadkar said.
People are allowed to shop for food, household and medical goods and for vital family reasons, for example to care for children or for the elderly.
What the Taoiseach called ‘brief individual exercise’ is permitted – but only within 2km of a person’s own home.
Further non-essential shops will be closed while public transport will be restricted to essential workers and people providing essential services.
Varadkar said: “There should be no travel 2km outside the home for any reason. These are radical actions aimed at saving as many lives as possible.”
Across the Republic of Ireland, there are now 2,121 positive cases with an additional 302 announced today by health officials.
The number in Donegal has gone up from 12 to 15 since yesterday and the first Covid-19 related death in the north-west was confirmed today.
Nationally, three new deaths – including one healthcare worker – bring the total number of deaths to 22 in the Republic of Ireland.
On the island of Ireland, there have already been 35 deaths.
Varadkar was joined for the televised public briefing by Health Minister Simon Harris and Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer.
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