LAST UPDATE | 6 Apr 2021

EVERY MORNING, The Journal brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #CARRICKFERGUS: The PSNI has suggested that organised criminal elements are to blame after violence erupted in loyalist areas of Northern Ireland again last night.

2. #VACCINATIONS: Teachers’ unions are considering balloting their members to stage industrial action over changes to the vaccine prioritisation list, ahead of their annual conferences which begin today.

3. #GEORGE FLOYD: The police chief of Minneapolis has said that former officer Derek Chauvin violated the force’s training policies by kneeling on George Floyd’s neck after he had stopped resisting arrest before his death last year.

4. #ISOLATING: The Journal understands that a number of gardaí in Dublin are isolating after a person staying at a quarantine hotel tested positive for Covid-19.

5. #HOSPITALISATIONS: The number of Covid-19 patients being treated in Irish hospitals has risen to 263, following a gradual decline in figures last week.

6. #MENTAL HEALTH: Ireland’s first professor of public mental health has revealed that demand for services is greater than ever due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

7. #VACCINE PASS: Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that additional freedoms will be granted to people once they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

8. #QUARANTINE BUBBLE: New Zealand and Australia are set to begin a two-way bubble, which will not require passengers travelling between them to quarantine, later this month.

9. #WEATHER: It will be a cold and breezy day across the country, with sunny spells and scattered wintry showers. Highest temperatures will be between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius.