Longford schools to stay closed until January 11 under new Covid-19 restrictions

Schools will remain closed in Ireland until January 11 after the cabinet today agreed tighter Covid-19 restrictions.

Schools were due to reopen on January 5 and 6.

BREAKING: New Covid-19 Restrictions that come into place from tonight

Full Level 5 restrictions are to be in place until 31 January.

Other restrictions that will come in to effect are a 5km limit on travel, the closure of non-essential shops, swimming pools and gyms, and the closure of sports including golf and tennis, with the exception of professional or elite sports like Gaelic games and horse racing behind closed doors.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that the situation is continuing to deteriorate.

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"We are seeing a very rapid increase, an ongoing increase in cases, we are also seeing a very rapid increase in hospitalisations. We need to keep people safe, we need to keep people alive, and we need to keep our hospital system and our healthcare system open. 

"So obviously very serious decisions have to be looked at today. The good news however is that we have the vaccine, there are more vaccines coming we are rolling it out, we are accelerating that and so t he strategy is to surprise the virus to give time to vaccinate front line workers and those who are most vulnerable".

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