Families should soon be able to visit loved ones in nursing homes, according to the HSE

It comes after an 80% drop in Covid-19 cases in residential settings in a single week.

The HSE says it's the first indication that the vaccination rollout is taking effect  - with a drop in cases also amongst staff in hospitals.

Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE, Colm Henry, says a review on visiting policies is currently underway:

"Yes of course we want to resume visits in some kind of controlled way, in some kind of safe way as we did before and we're looking at this right now to see how we can reintroduce those, bearing in mind we're just coming out of a serious surge in cases which had a very significant impact in nursing homes."