NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Deliveries of fresh fruit being taken in by BOM Fruit in Dublin City centre today Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• People are being urged to consider restricting their movements and limiting contacts from today if they plan on seeing vulnerable family or friends over Christmas.
• Retired doctors and healthcare professionals who are proficient in administering injections may be asked to help with the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. 
• Gardaí are appealing for witnesses after a woman died following a serious collision in Co Dublin earlier this month. 
• An amber alert was declared this week by Eirgrid as the electrical supply system came under sustained pressure to meet a high demand.
• Almost 450 jobs are at risk a result of the closure of a pharmaceutical plant in Baldoyle, Dublin.
• A driver has been caught travelling at 137km/h on the N7 today, as gardaí check for motorists breaking speeds on Irish roads as part of ‘National Slow Down Day’.
• Staff in the public sector are to get two pay rises of 1% in the next two years.
• Latest figures show that no cases of flu have been transmitted in Ireland this winter.

INTERNATIONAL

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during a visit to the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, Northumberland Owen Humphreys Owen Humphreys

#BREXIT: British Prime Minister  Boris Johnson has warned it is “very, very likely” that the UK will fail to strike a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.

#ENGLAND: The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital in two regions of southern England are heading towards levels recorded at the peak of the first wave of the virus, figures show.

#TRUMP: A Wisconsin judge has ruled against Donald Trump’s lawsuit seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s election win in the state, another in a string of defeats in the president’s extraordinary attempts to undo his loss.

PARTING SHOT

Margaret the giraffe ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

A giraffe has been given the name Margaret in honour of the first patient in the world to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside clinical trials.

Staff at Whipsnade Zoo chose the name as the female calf was born on Tuesday – the same day Margaret Keenan, 90, made history by receiving the Pfizer coronavirus jab in Coventry.