Covid-19: Third lockdown amid warnings virus is out of control

Two women walk on Burrow beach in Dublin. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that Ireland is rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine at a slower pace than other countries, but it will catch up.

The country is now in lockdown for at least a month, with soundings from Government suggesting that the latest restrictions could run into February.

Declaring the state of the pandemic as "extremely serious", Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned that the number of positive cases would deteriorate further, even after seeing record levels in the past week.