In televised addresses, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, have announced stronger measures in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Some prisoners to be released in the North of Ireland.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar advised people to stay at home, if at all possible, and said they can only leave home to go to work, go to shops for essential supplies. Visits to other people’s homes are to be avoided, as are social gatherings of more than four people.

The measures are in line with those announced on Monday night by British Prime Minister, which are also being implemented by the Stormont government in the north of Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said: “We need to do more. I’m asking you to stay at home if at all possible to buy us time”.

By Tuesday afternoon, there were a total of ten coronavirus-related deaths in Ireland – six in the South and four in the North. There were 239 new cases yesterday, 219 in the South and 20 in the North, bringing the total to 1,273 cases -- 1,125 in the South and 148 in the North.

NEW POLICE POWERS

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday night ordered a ‘lockdown’ to tackle the coronavirus in Britain, where health services are already facing a capacity crisis due to a delayed response by the government there.

Johnson revealed that police fines could be issued to public gatherings of more than two people. The police in Britain have also been empowered to intervene if people fail to follow instructions to ‘stay at home’, subject to a few exceptions: when shopping for essentials; doing daily exercise; attending to the needs of vulnerable people; and travelling to and from essential work.

The measures will be in place for at least three weeks.

The British government also announced moves to temporarily fund the salaries of employees facing redundancy in the private sector, but has failed to come up with a plan for the self-employed, many of whom are ignoring instructions not to go to work.

Despite a sudden u-turn in its approach, Britain is rapidly becoming one of the most infected countries. A further large jump in the number of deaths and cases of the virus was announced by authorities in London on Tuesday. The daily rise of 87 deaths is by far the largest yet seen, as was the jump in new cases of 1,427 to 8,077.

PRISONERS IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND

The Prison Service in the Six Counties has said it is to release some prisoners in order to “relieve pressure” on the justice system. Significantly, no political prisoners are to be released.

The move comes after republican prisoners on Roe 4, Maghaberry called for safety measures to be introduced to prevent contamination from the outside.

In a statement released on Sunday, the prisoners called for warders to be removed from the landing throughout the day, and for an end of forced transport of prisoners to other areas of the jail, with videolink and skype used instead.