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

IRELAND

A near-empty Dublin Airport Terminal 2 today. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• 897 Covid-19 cases and 101 deaths were confirmed by public health officials in Ireland. 
• The Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that 35,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are due to be delivered to Ireland next week. 
• Police in Northern Ireland said there is no evidence of loyalist paramilitaries being involved in threats made to workers conducting post-Brexit trade checks at Northern Ireland’s ports.
• The government expressed hope that a decision on this year’s Leaving Cert could be made next week, but the issue was not discussed by Cabinet today.
• More than 1,500 people died with Covid-19 in nursing homes in Ireland, the Oireachtas Health Committee has heard.
• The Cabinet was told that legislation is required to enforce rules on mandatory quarantining in hotels, delaying the government’s plans to introduce the measure. 
• A former scout leader who has been jailed for abusing ten boys called for gardaí to find the rest of his “many victims” so that he can “put an end to all of this”.
• A new garda vice unit set up to target organised prostitution brought an additional 71 charges against an Egyptian man charged with running brothels in Dublin.
• Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said that there have been several “large funerals” during Covid-19 restrictions, mentioning the funeral of Detective Garda Colm Horkan as an example. 
• Over 2,000 Leaving Cert students who sat written exams received their results. 
• Planning permission for a new hotel in Dublin city centre was refused by Dublin City Council over concerns about the “overconcentration” of hotels in the area.

INTERNATIONAL 

File image of Tom Moore last year. PA PA

#JAIL: A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to go to prison on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. 

#RIP: Captain Tom Moore died at the age of 100 after testing positive for Covid-19.

#JAB: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, according to an analysis published in The Lancet today.

PARTING SHOT

We have stepped up to the Swiss police @fedpolCH #JerusalemaChallenge. Gardaí across Ireland answered the call to give the public we serve a lift in these challenging times. #StayTogether #homeStaySafe pic.twitter.com/sbLdkk54hB

— Garda Info (@gardainfo) February 2, 2021

In case you missed it earlier today, gardaí across the country have been dancing up a storm as part of an online trend known as the Jerusalema challenge. 

They were challenged to dance along to the South African house song Jerusalema by the Swiss police after officers there showed off their own moves last month.

You may be confused as to why this became a challenge, and the video might not answer this question, but if nothing else it features some dancing horses about halfway through. 

You can watch the video on the Garda Info Twitter here. 

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