LATEST: Cheers! Kilkenny pubs and restaurants to reopen as normal from tomorrow

The Cabinet has agreed to lift almost all public health restrictions from 6am tomorrow.

This means that from early tomorrow morning the rules around social gatherings will closely resemble the way things were before the pandemic.

Bars, restaurants and nightclubs in Kilkenny and across the country will be able to operate normal trading times and without Covid passes or social distancing.

Events held both indoor and outside won’t have any crowd limits imposed on them.

The new comes as the Department of Health this evening confirmed it has been notified of 6,597 more cases of Covid-19. In addition, 4,564 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal yesterday.

As of 8am today, 892 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, 88 of which are in intensive care.