The Taoiseach Says Level 5 Restrictions Will Continue Into February

Micheál Martin told his parliamentary party last night the numbers remain too high.

It comes as a further 61 deaths and 2,488 new case have been reported - while there are 1,923 people in hospital with Covid and 210 in ICUs.

NPHET will meet later to consider the current situation, and Cabinet will make a final decision on restrictions on Tuesday.

Infectious disease consultant Cliona Ní Cheallaigh, says an extended lockdown is necessary:

"I can't see any way that they wouldn't extend us to the end of February, I mean we saw in December and January the consequences of freeing up when levels in the community are still quite high, and we're certainly not at a stage where we could afford to do that yet. I would envisage that if we relaxed the restrictions now we'd be right back to that very dramatic climb in cases that we saw at the end of December, early January. Our system just can't cope with us."