Irish PM says good chance social distancing rule can be relaxed

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar raised the prospect on Friday of halving social distancing rules from two meters to one of the rates of coronavirus infections comes down further in a potential boost to still shuttered restaurants and pubs.

Facing one of the longest shutdowns in Europe, Ireland's hospitality sector has called for the guidelines to be eased in line with a number of other European countries, saying it could be the difference between some operators reopening or not.

"Before we can relax that rule and maybe reduce it to 1 (meter), which I know a lot of people would like, we just need to see the virus come down a bit more. We're not at that point yet but I think there's a good chance we get there, just not quite yet," Varadkar told Ireland's FM104 radio station.