{"id":204672,"date":"2020-03-28T08:40:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T08:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=204672"},"modified":"2020-04-01T05:28:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T05:28:37","slug":"coronavirus-ireland-put-in-lockdown-as-varadkar-asks-nation-to-forego-freedoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=204672","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: Ireland put in lockdown as Varadkar asks nation to ‘forego freedoms’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharon Marris \u2013 Sky News March 28, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Leo-Varadkar (right) with civil ‘partner’. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Ireland has been put under similar lockdown measures to the UK following three more coronavirus-related deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar<\/strong><\/a><\/span> said residents should stay home until at least 12 April unless they are buying groceries, attending medical appointments or collecting medication, getting brief exercise or making essential family visits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost all shops will be told to close and all gatherings outside of families will be banned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Public transport will be available only to essential workers and nobody should travel beyond 2km (1.2 miles) from their homes for any reason, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those over the age of 70 or with chronic diseases will be told to stay in their homes without exception over the period, which begins at midnight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Varadkar said: “Freedom was hard won in our country, and it jars with us, to restrict and limit individual liberties, even temporarily. But freedom is not an abstract concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We give it meaning every single day – in the way we live our lives – and in the decisions we take willingly to protect our loved ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So I am asking people to give meaning to our freedom and liberty by agreeing to these restrictions. Restricting how we live our lives so that so that others may live.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am asking us for a time, to forego our personal liberties and freedoms for a greater cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Tonight I am appealing to every man, woman and child in our country to make these sacrifices – not out of self-interest but for each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

“To begin each day knowing that every single imposition, every inconvenience, every irritation will save lives and help our health service cope.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The whole world is suffering during this pandemic, and Ireland is no different.<\/span><\/p>\n

“What happens now is up to each one of us.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The measures come after three more deaths thought to be as a result of COVID-19<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. One of the victims was a healthcare worker.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to data compiled by US university Johns Hopkins, there are 2,121 coronavirus cases in Ireland, with 22 deaths recorded<\/span><\/p>\n

Schools had already been closed, along with universities, pubs and most non-essential shops but, despite this, Mr Varadkar has previously warned that the country’s intensive care units would be at capacity within a few days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Varadkar appeals to the Irish to give-up their \u201cpersonal liberties and freedoms for a greater cause.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204672"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204676,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204672\/revisions\/204676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}