'Significant' new measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus are expected to be announced by the Government.

Greater powers for gardaí to inspect house gatherings was one of the items that was discussed by Cabinet ministers this afternoon.

It's after the Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn expressed concerns about clusters related to house parties.

Measures for older people to limit their movements are also expected to be announced following this afternoon's Cabinet meeting, which has been ongoing for several hours.

People will be asked to work from home where they can, in new measures to be announced by the government.

— Andrew Lowth (@AndrewLowth1) August 18, 2020

NPHET has also advised that all sporting events be played behind closed doors, after up to 200 people were previously allowed attend such events.

It comes after 56 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Ireland yesterday.

Around 1,100 cases have been confirmed here in the past two weeks – with the 200 cases confirmed on Saturday the highest figure the country has seen since early May.

The National Public Health Emergency Team met yesterday to discuss the situation and agreed a number of new measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

Priorities

On Newstalk Breakfast yesterday, Minister Donnelly said the Government has ‘four big priorities’ in terms of the virus response in the coming months – public health, reopening schools, reopening healthcare and protecting jobs.

He said the next three weeks are “really important” in terms of getting schools and hospitals reopened.

He also said he remains “very hopeful” the two-week lockdown in Kildare, Laois and Offaly can be lifted as planned next week.

To date the country has seen 27,313 confirmed cases of the virus and 1,774 coronavirus-related deaths.

Just short of 80% of the 56 new cases announced yesterday were under the age of 45.