Varadkar says the prospect of daily cases falling 'unlikely'

Speaking in the Dáil today, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said it is “very hard” to see daily cases falling below 500 as the virus has “mutated” and is now “more deadly”.

He said the virus had "mutated" and was now "more deadly".

“Despite enormous efforts of the Irish people doing all of the right things, we've still got stuck around 500 or 600 cases a day," stated the Fine Gael leader.

“It’s very hard to see how we’re going to get down much lower than that,” he added.

The Tánaiste said that he expects Ireland to receive over one million vaccine doses by the end of March, with 800,000 of those jabs administered.

The Government is expected to make a formal announcement on the slight easing of Level 5 measures next Tuesday, with Nphet’s usual Thursday meeting postponed from today until Monday.