Further lifting of Covid restrictions will come in from today.

In a further easing of restrictions, indoor construction work on houses can restart on today with trades being allowed to enter occupied properties again.

Social distancing rules apply, face coverings must be worn and ideally, householders should be out of the house at the time or at least not in the same room.

Also from today, estate agents and surveyors can also enter people’s homes and restrictions around viewings for vacant unoccupied properties will be removed.

Clinically extremely vulnerable people no longer have to stay at home all the time. So they can now go for a walk or visit a shop.

And from the same day, hardware stores can reopen – with social distancing in place and face coverings strongly recommended.

Pet groomers will be able to accept animals on a drop-off and collection basis.

All outdoor leisure venues can reopen but the rules on outdoor gatherings still apply.

No more than 10 people can gather together and there must be social distancing in place, preferably with face coverings.

There should be no sharing of sports equipment between different households, such as golf balls for example.

Children’s play areas can all reopen from today but parents are urged to make every effort to keep children from different households separated.

Schools are reopening for teachers today.Primary schools will open for vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers tomorrow.Secondary schools will open for certain pupils in years 11 and 13 with work assessments to complete before summer.

The plan is for schools to reopen to all students from April 19.

One new Covid case was detected at the weekend.