Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin says the country’s third Covid-19 lockdown will be extended by a month blaming a virus variant first identified in the UK for the decision.
Current lockdown measures in place since late December were due to expire on March 5 but will now be prolonged until April 5.
Non-essential businesses, restaurants, pubs and gyms are to remain shut, government stay home advice has been renewed and a five-kilometre limit travel limit will continue.
The Irish prime minister emphasised that a Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK had become a major problem and was now responsible for up to 90 per cent of new infections.