LAST UPDATE | 7 Jun 2020

IRELAND IS SET to enter its accelerated phase of re-opening the country tomorrow, when people are permitted to go anywhere in their own county and retail stores can welcome customers again. 

Phase Two comes with the death toll in Ireland from Covid-19 now at 1,678 after a further nine deaths were confirmed last night.

The total number of cases now stands at 25,183 with only low double figures adding to this number each day in the past week. 

Elsewhere, amid a rising death toll, Brazil’s government has said it won’t be publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections.

Critics say the move is an attempt to hide the true scale of virus in what is now the country second to only the USA in the number of confirmed cases. 

A close associate of president Jair Bolsonaro said the current numbers are “fanciful or manipulated”. 

Here are today’s Covid-19 main points: 

• One further person with Covid-19 has died in Ireland and 25 more cases have been reported, the Department of Health confirmed this evening.
• A couple had their mortgage approval pulled because one of them is on the wage subsidy scheme. 
• Ireland could have an “air bridge” with France, Portugal, Germany and maybe Greece. 
• People will have to rely on family and friends for a “dig out” until creches re-open, Minister Simon Harris has said. 
• Shoppers are being told to expect queues when retail outlets begin to open back up tomorrow. 
• From tomorrow, 15 NCT service centres, and 20 NDLS centres will re-open.

Here are today’s international Covid-19 main points:

• The European Union 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, an EU commissioner said.
• No new coronavirus deaths have been reported in Scotland in the last 24 hours for the first time since lockdown began.
• Boris Johnson is set to make a major speech to outline plans to “rebuild Britain” after the Covid-19 pandemic. 
• It’s all systems go for the English Premier League after the latest round of testing all players and staff saw zero positive Covid-19 results. 
• Thousands of homeless people in Britain were given hotel rooms to protect them from coronavirus but as the outbreak slows, charities fear they could soon be back on the streets.
• Brazil’s government has stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America’s largest nation.
• A further 749 people died in the US yesterday, bringing the death toll there to 109,791.
• Sweden didn’t lock down during the pandemic, but its economy still looks set to plunge.