Ireland bans gatherings of over 5,000 people till August-end

Dublin, The Irish government has announced that the ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people in the country will run through the end of August.

"Local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licenses in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August," the government said in a statement on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The Irish Department of Health on Tuesday reported another 44 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total fatalities to 730.

Tuesday also saw 388 new cases, pushing the total infections to 16,040, said the department.

The Irish government has banned all mass gatherings since March 24, and the ban is expected to be reviewed on May 5 when a set of restrictive measures is supposed to come to an end.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has told the Irish public that even if the restrictions are eased after May 5, they will be done in a "bit-by-bit" way instead of being done "in one go".

On Sunday night, Irish Health Minister Simon Harris warned in a twitter message that any complacency in the battle against COVID-19 would be "disastrous" and could potentially be "fatal".

His warning came amid reports that some European countries hit by the pandemic have started to ease their lockdown measures.

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