Who is popular today?

Ireland is facing tough Covid-19 restrictions for the first six months of the year, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Saturday.
Mr Martin said while he wasn’t necessarily suggesting a six-month lockdown, the Government would be taking a “cautious and conservative approach” with regard to reopening the country, particularly in light of the new variants of the virus.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has advised that current restrictions should be extended to the end of February, denting hopes of a reopening of the construction sector at the start of next month.
Sources expect that restrictions will be extended until at least the end of February, although Government hopes that some elements of education, especially special education, may reopen next month. There is also hope a partial reopening of construction may be possible later in the month.
But speaking on RTÉ Radio One on Saturday morning, Mr Martin said to relax some restrictions next month, figures for Covid cases must be “well down”.
However, he said he was concerned about the UK variant, as it is currently responsible for 62 per cent of cases.
“It transmits more easily. If we have mass mobilisation, and mass socialisation, it will spread again. I think with the vaccines coming, there’s a need to be cautious and conservative for the first half of this year,” he said.
“We will be witnessing far more prolonged restrictions than we have to date. I’m the Taoiseach, but I have to consult with my colleagues and Ministers, and we’ll consult with the opposition as well, but that is my sense of it until we get control.”
Mr Martin made the comments as case numbers of Covid-19 in the Republic continue to be in the thousands and the number of deaths is rising.
An additional 52 coronavirus-related deaths were reported in the State on Friday night, alongside a further 2,371 confirmed cases.
On Saturday there were 1,893 people were being treated in the Republic’s hospitals for Covid-19, with 218 people seriously ill in ICU.
There are growing concerns about capacity in ICU units this weekend. Staff in Cork University Hospital were asked to volunteer for shifts to provide critical care on Friday night as the hospital was hit by staff absences due to Covid-19. The HSE said that patients were being transferred from the west of the country to ICU units in Dublin hospitals, and sources said that there were likely to be more transfers this weekend and into next week.
Amid growing fears among EU governments about new variants of the disease countries across the bloc have moved to tighten travel restrictions and new measures to combat the virus have been reimposed across the world.
Ahead of a meeting of the Cabinet’s Covid sub-committee on Monday a range of options on tighter quarantine restrictions, including changes to the visa regime, were discussed by senior officials on Friday. But it is clear that a tightening of restrictions is on the way.
While there are continuing misgivings at senior level over the effectiveness and enforceability of a blanket mandatory quarantine, arrivals from South Africa and Brazil, as well as other South American countries, may nonetheless face a period of hotel quarantine if a full ban is not pursued. Sources said this approach would allow the State to “test out” how such a system would work.
It is also expected that Garda enforcement of the ban on non-essential travel will be stepped up on routes to Dublin Airport.
Meanwhile, fresh doubts have emerged over the delivery schedule of the “game-changer” AstraZeneca vaccine. The company told the European Commission that there would be delays in the delivery of the vaccine compared with the forecast for the first quarter of the year.
Ministers will next week also consider restricting arrivals from South Africa and Brazil in addition to closer monitoring of Irish people’s quarantine at home, as countries across Europe move to restrict international travel.