Coronavirus in Ireland – Public told stay within 2km of home for two-week lockdown to stop spread of Covid-19

IRELAND is on a two-week lockdown from midnight tonight to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Everyone must stay at home unless they are doing essential work, buying food, visiting a doctor, leaving for farming purposes, caring for someone, or exercising within 2km of their homes.

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced: “For a two week period until Easter Sunday everyone must stay at home.

“Unless they need to travel to and from work, only where the work is an essential service that cannot be done from home.”

Everybody must stay at home unless for essential work, to shop for food or medicines or to take exercise within 2km of their homes.

All public and private gatherings outside of a single household are prohibited.

Varadkar said all people over the age of 70, and those in high-risk categories, would be “cocooned” for the period until Sunday April 12.

All public transport and passenger travel will be restricted to essential workers.

RESTRICTIONS FROM MIDNIGHT

All non-essential health procedures will be postponed.

Travel to our offshore islands will be limited to inhabitants of those islands.

And the National Public Health Emergency Team has advised the closure of non-essential shops and services.

The Taoiseach said a list of essential work would be published.

He said social visits to relatives beyond the family unit at home would not be allowed.

All residential healthcare centres to cease operating, with specific exceptions on compassionate grounds.

‘LIFESAVING MEASURES’

Varadkar said the new measures will “save lives and help our health service to cope”.

He said: “These are radical actions aimed at saving as many people’s lives as possible in the days and weeks ahead.”

The Taoiseach said that while “lockdown” means different things in different places, this is a “very restrictive” set of measures and added that there isn’t much more beyond this that the government can do.

And he admitted the 2km limit will be hard to police but “we can achieve this by consent” in the community.

‘DIFFICULT CHANGES’

Health Minister Simon Harris acknowledged the steps would mean “intensive and difficult changes” for people’s way of life.

He said introducing the measures now may mean they would ultimately last for a shorter period than if they were put in place later in the outbreak.

He said: “We need to stay the course and, put simply, we need to stay at home.”

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said there are early signs that previous measures put in place – like school closures and shutting non-essential businesses – are having an impact but the worst is not over.

He warned: “We think now is the time for us to move, to try and spend two weeks to really suppress this virus as much as is possible in the community.”

HEALTHCARE WORKER DIES

The Taoiseach extended his sympathies to the families of the 22 Irish Covid-19 victims who have died and said it was understood one of the latest fatalities in Ireland was a health care worker.

The Covid-19 death toll on the island of Ireland has hit 35 after three new deaths in the Republic of Ireland were confirmed, bringing the total to 22.

And three new deaths were also reported in Northern Ireland which brings the total there to 13.

The total number of cases in the Republic of Ireland is now over 2,000 at 2,121 and in the North they’ve hit 275.

The all-island case tally now stands at 2,396.

Varadkar earlier said it would be a “very pleasant surprise” if there is less than 1,000 coronavirus deaths in Ireland.

But he admitted Ireland’s total death toll from coronavirus is “impossible to predict” and warned ICU beds could be full in days.

The Fine Gael leader said it’s set to get “very difficult” as the number of cases continue to rise here.