LAST UPDATE | 8 Jun 2020

Mark Herghelejiu (6) eats an ice cream on Moore Street in Dublin. PA Images PA Images

HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed four more deaths from Covid-19, but just nine new confirmed cases of the virus – the lowest such figure since 9 March.

It comes on a big day in Ireland’s journey through the Covid-19 pandemic. 

With non-essential retail shops closed across the country for the past 10 weeks, they are reopening today as part of Phase 2 of the government’s roadmap. 

The new phase is an accelerated version of the plan as originally announced at the beginning of last month, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declaring it as ‘Phase Two Plus’. 

Today’s Covid-19 main points

Ireland

• Health officials announced that a further four patients have died as a result of Covid-19 and that there are nine new cases confirmed in Ireland.
• Here’s what’s allowed from today as Phase Two of the ‘accelerated’ roadmap kicks in. 
• Some public transport providers are to return to pre-pandemic levels of frequency with increased numbers of commuters expected.
• There was however little sign of the return of rush-hour in Dublin this morning.
• Health Minister Simon Harris has asked people to continue to limit the number of contacts they have with others.
• The Minister for Social Protection has said the advice that grandparents remove themselves from any childcare duties has not change despite the return of many retail outlets today. 
• The Irish Hairdressers Federation has today published guidelines which it says will allow hair salons to reopen safely in three weeks’ time. Under the current plan, hairdressers are to remain shut until 20 July. 
• As shops reopen in the Republic, most are remaining closed in Northern Ireland but some weddings may take place.
• There were siginficant queues outside in Ikea’s store in Ballymun after it reopened this morning. 
• Dublin department stores Brown Thomas and Arnotts are to fully reopen from Wednesday while shopping centres will reopen from this day next week.
• Bank of Ireland has said that the majority of its 161 branches on 29 June. 
• An Ulster Bank tracker of construction activity has found that it continued to fall sharply in May but at a slower pace than in April. 
• Alone the organisation which supports older people has welcomed the further easing of restrictions for older people but has called for further clarity. 
• Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone has announced  funding to enable the formal opening of UBU – Your Space Your Place, from July. The scheme provides funding for youth services in disadvantaged communities.
• The number of people on Rent Supplement has risen by 33% since the start of the pandemic.
• A new field hospital constructed on the grounds of the University of Limerick has opened to help deal with overcrowding across the county’s healthcare facilities.

WORLD

• The World Health Organisation has said that the pandemic situation is worsening around the globe and has warned against complacency.
• Surging fatalities in Latin America helped push the global coronavirus death toll above 400,000.
• The World Bank has said that the pandemic has inflicted a “swift and massive shock” that has caused the broadest collapse of the global economy since 1870.
• Brazil has the world’s third-highest dead toll — more than 36,000 dead — and deaths are rising sharply in Mexico, Peru and Ecuador and Chile.
• The UK recorded its lowest daily death toll in more than two months, with 55 coronavirus deaths in the previous 24 hours.
• Late yesterday, the US daily death toll stood at 691, the lowest it had been in a week.
• It was also confirmed that the US economy entered recession in February, ending 128 months of expansion.
• New Zealand has eradicated the coronavirus from its shores after health officials reported today that the final person known to have been infected had recovered.
• Two-week quarantine rules for UK arrivals come into force from today, but the measures do not apply to travellers from Ireland. (BBC News) 
• The EU is set to unveil a package of measures to better combat child sex abuse after online demand for illegal content involving minors soared during the coronavirus lockdowns.

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