Covid-19: Construction sites and schools to shut to protect 'under threat' health service

95-year-old Dublin woman, Maura Byrne, who lost her husband to coronavirus, received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Hollybrook Lodge, the residential care unit managed by St James’s Hospital in Dublin. Picture: Anthony Edwards, Clinical Photographer, St James’s Hospital

The Government is to close schools and construction sites in a bid to protect the health service which is under "real threat", the HSE's chief executive has warned.

A return to a full lockdown is set to be signed off on by the Government today. This will include a ban on click-and-collect shopping, and a requirement on all travellers to be tested for Covid-19 before entering the country.