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

IRELAND

Garda checkpoint in Dublin today. Sasko Lazarov Sasko Lazarov

• A further 1,062 Covid-19 cases and ten additional deaths were reported by public health officials. 
• Here are the main points to know from tonight’s NPHET briefing.
• Special schools will reopen at 50% capacity on 11 February, it emerged this evening. 
• The Cabinet sub-committee on education is meeting to discuss the options being considered for this year’s Junior and Leaving Certificates. 
• Nearly 200,000 vaccine doses against Covid-19 have been administered so far in Ireland.
• Nearly 300 people were fined at Dublin Airport for leaving the country for non-essential travel in the last days of the month.
• Europol warned travellers to watch for organised crime gangs selling fake Covid-negative certificates at airports, sometimes for as much as €300 each.
• The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said there was an issue with vaccine data reported from Ireland which claimed the country had administered more than 430,000 vaccines.
• Simon Coveney said the decision by the European Commission to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol to stop flow of vaccines into the North from the EU was “extraordinary”.
• The Minister for Justice promised to bring proposals to Cabinet to address a court ruling that prevents children who are killed in criminal circumstances being named publicly after their death.
• A “special, loving” boy who touched the hearts of everyone who ever met him was horrifically murdered by his uncle, a man he trusted, the Central Criminal Court heard.

INTERNATIONAL

Military supporters in Yangon, Myanmar. SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

#COUP: A coup was staged by Myanmar’s military and the democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained. 

#RIP: Saved by the Bell actor Dustin Diamond died aged 44 three weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.

PARTING SHOT 

The news from Myanmar earlier today that the military had staged a coup and detained the democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi may feel sudden, but it follows weeks of rising tensions between the military and the civilian government.

The tension surrounds the elections held in November last year, easily won by San Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party. 

Here’s an explainer about how this happened, the reaction from around the world, and what is likely to happen next. 

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