Coronavirus: Gardaí gains power near pubs violating Covid-19 rules

Gardaí (Irish Police) have been given legal powers to shut down non-compliant restaurants and pubs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The legislation came into effect after the Covid-19 Criminal Justice Enforcement Powers Bill was enacted.

It comes when the taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) warned that his government would not be afraid to implement special restrictions in Dublin.

More than half of the new cases on Friday were in Dublin.

Micheál Martin said that the ministers had learned from his actions during the previous crackdowns in Kildare, Offaly and Laois.

On Friday, one more death and 211 cases of Covid-19 were registered in the Republic.

Ireland’s total number of cases is 30,571, with 1,781 deaths.

Ireland’s medical director has warned people living in the city to take “immediate steps” to break the chain of transmission.

Dr. Ronan Glynn said the virus was growing 4% in the capital and was being driven by groups of households.

He warned that if things continued on this trend, the number of new cases in Dublin would double in the next 14 days.

Martin told RTÉ that “the most important thing in Dublin is how to deal with the virus to reduce the number of cases and put pressure on the virus.”

He said: “This gives us an opportunity to control the current trajectory of the disease.

“To do so, we must act now to break the chains of transmission,” he added.

The Irish cabinet will consider advice from public health experts on Tuesday after warnings from the acting medical director.

In Northern Ireland, a total of 88 new cases were reported on Friday. There were no deaths reported by the Health Department.