There’s some spring sunshine at the end of the tunnel.

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin has indicated that the 5km travel limit may be eased on Easter Monday, April 5th – around six weeks’ time.

With a further 56 deaths and 574 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the past 24 hours, 21 of which are in Cork, The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has said the situation is uncertain.

However, if current trends continue, it is hoped that the number of coronavirus patients currently receiving hospital care will have halved by mid-March, paving the way for some tentative and cautious steps out of lockdown.

As of last night, thankfully those in hospital with #COVID19 is down to 597 with 135 in ICU. Some welcome news for our exhausted healthcare staff too. This is a long exit route from this wave for everyone. But we will get there. @HSELive

— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) February 25, 2021

Speaking to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party on Wednesday night, the Taoiseach said that strict Level 5 restrictions on outdoor activity, sport and construction could be reviewed before Easter and potentially relaxed on April 5th.

‘Stay at home, work from home where possible’

“We continue to see good progress, but this needs to be sustained,” said Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health.

“It is vital that we get our children back to school over the coming weeks. A key part of making this a success will be our continued collective buy-in to the public health measures that are tried and tested. Stay at home, work from home where possible.

“Given the increased transmissibility of the virus now, we must continue to limit our social contacts and do all we can to starve this disease of opportunities to spread.”

80% of adults to be vaccinated ‘by June’

As it stands, just 131,898 people have received their second dose of the vaccine. The rollout is expected to ramp up considerably by April, with a total of 18.48million vaccine doses ordered from a number of different suppliers.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he believes more than 80% of adults in Ireland will have at least one vaccination by the end of June.