With most staff and residents vaccinated, the health service is expected to make new proposals to Nphet for this sector

Covid-19 restrictions say you should not leave home at all ‘without reasonable excuse’ – a rule that‘s broader than it need be, is widely misunderstood and of dubious effectiveness

Speedy tests for virus could be used alongside the state’s PCR testing programme as country aims for safer eventual reopening

Vaccine found to be 91.6 per cent effective in symptomatic patients, but Irish officials not yet ready to go outside EU’s vaccine programme

Even with the help of the CRSS and other state aids, businesses are at breaking point – and while compliance is still high, there is a collective exhaustion and a worry that for many, reopening may never arrive

Coronavirus could also be the precursor to even more virulent and dangerous pandemics, according to disease expert Ian Lipkin

Public health expert says weak attempts at containment may have allowed the variants in before stricter quarantine laws are enforced

Analysis of the current pace of administering the Covid-19 vaccines and an anticipated increase in supply encourages an optimistic outlook

Move could result in vaccines being administered to the public at local pharmacies by the end of March

GPs have been given guidance on who is next in line to receive vaccination, to prevent extra doses spoiling

Mass travel, from the influx of Italian fans after a cancelled rugby match, to Cheltenham, to holiday makers returning from Spain and the ‘meaningful Christmas’ shows a leadership that has been unwilling to learn from cruel experience

A last-minute adjustment to ditch the AstraZeneca jab for the over-70s brought another unwelcome delay to the vaccine rollout, but GPs say steady work is being done behind the scenes

The National Service Plan shows that €200m of the €1.6bn allocated to fighting the pandemic is to be spent on the rollout of vaccinations

The medical expert warns mandatory quarantine is vital to protect our national vaccine strategy from new Covid-19 variant

Taoiseach will give no consideration to reopening hospitality before mid-summer, while chief executive of restaurants association says businesses are being pushed ‘closer to financial ruin and meltdown’

The over-80s benefited most with the weekly average for new cases falling more

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the need to ensure equal global access to vaccines has been widely acknowledged by governments, yet little in the way of meaningful action has been achieved to date

Despite potential risks to efficacy from new strains of the virus, experts say vaccines will still protect people from becoming seriously ill with Covid-19

Ireland would be entitled to 2.2 million doses of the single-shot vaccine

Officials at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reported that the lifting of level 5 restrictions before Christmas did not have an ‘immediate and positive impact on the labour market’