Not too far away…

Ireland is making major progress towards lifting restrictions once more, with Cabinet set to have a meeting on Friday to discuss the easing of some restrictions next week.

Advice from NPHET, which met yesterday, is expected to come in today — and it is further expected that the advice will be to extend hospitality opening hours until midnight, and increase capacity at gatherings such as sports events, live entertainment and weddings.

Beyond that, Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party last night that recent developments have given a “strong degree of confidence that we can ease restrictions quickly over the next few weeks.”

The Tánaiste specified March 31st as the date in mind for the “deadline to end almost all legal restrictions.” As things stand, the latest emergency powers that give the government the authority to enforce current restrictions elapse at the end of March. If Varadkar’s suggested roadmap is followed, these powers would simply not be renewed by the Dáil at the end of March.

Cases of Covid in Ireland have sharply dropped over the past few days. 11,683 total cases were confirmed yesterday — including 5,916 which were registered through the new, online antigen test portal.

Cases in hospital have fallen below a thousand, with 979 hospitalisations reported yesterday. 93 of these are in intensive care.

Main image: Beautiful People of Cork