LAST UPDATE | 22 May 2020

A member of the public wearing a face masks in Dublin city. Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

THE CANCELLATION OF the Leaving Cert and the proposed calculated grades system is still being tested. One of the biggest teaching unions said last night it wasn’t on board before saying today it has been reassured. 

It comes as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are already affecting global plans for next year as a rescheduled Olympics next year is looking doubtful. 

Here are today’s Covid-19 main points:

Ireland 

• The ASTI is now advising its members to engage with calculated grades model for the Leaving Cert as it said it is now satisfied that “full indemnity” has been secured. 
• A further 11 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland, the Department of Health has confirmed, as the number of new cases exceeded 100 for the first time in a week.
• Simon Harris has said those who arrive to Ireland will be asked to quarantine for 14 days and will be required by law to sign a Public Health Passenger Locator form.
• Full court sittings are set to resume today after fresh advice was received by the Courts Service. 
• Horse Racing Ireland has said the seven-day Galway Racing Festival will go ahead behind closed doors in July.
• The National Public Health Health Emergency Team will meet to discuss the outbreak of Covid-19 in meat factories today.
• Tom Parlon of the CIF has said he “misspoke” when he claimed the cost of the National Children’s Hospital could rise by as much as 40%. 
• Gardaí have said people have been speeding more on the roads due to a reduction in car traffic. 
• Irish troops in Lebanon are to return home at the end of next month after they were forced to stay longer due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 
• Those aged over make up 90% of Covid-19 related deaths, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
• A new testing facility in Queen’s University Belfast is expected to increase capacity to 1,000 tests per day.

WORLD

• A senior Olympics official has warned that holding the postponed Tokyo Games next year faces “real problems”, with even a vaccine unlikely to stave off the threat of the coronavirus.
• The leader of Russia’s southern Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, is in hospital in Moscow suffering from suspected coronavirus.
• International travellers could face spot checks and £1,000 fines if they fail to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving in the UK. The rules, which do not apply to people travelling from Ireland, also have exemptions for road hauliers and medical officials.
• UK pub chain Wetherspoon’s has said it will spend an initial £11 million making its 875 pubs Covid-19 secure. The chain said each pub will hire two full-time workers to regularly clean surfaces. 
• Brazil’s death toll — the sixth highest of any country — has doubled in just 11 days. The epicentre of Latin America’s outbreak has now recorded more than 20,000 dead.
• At a meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s communist rulers avoided setting an annual growth target for the first time in decades. 
• The leader of Russia’s southern Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, is in hospital in Moscow suffering from suspected coronavirus.

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