Outdoor sport events in Ireland will take place behind closed doors, after recommendations by NPHET were adopted by the government.
Following a recent spike in the cases, the cabinet have backed the proposals which will now see attendance at games restricted to just players, coaches and medical teams until at least September 13th.
There had been a limit of 200 people at events while a recent proposal to extend that number was dropped due to the rise in cases since late July.
It now represents a major obstacle to this year's All-Ireland Senior Football and Hurling Championships going ahead as planned in November.
The GAA's President John Horan and Director General Tom Ryan previously stated that they were not planning for inter-county games to take place without supporters behind allowed to attend.
"I’d hate for it to be behind closed doors," GAA commercial director Peter McKenna said on RTE Radio last month. "We’d like to finish it this year if we could. The preference would be to not have it behind closed doors, but we will if necessary. It would very much be the last resort."
It's also unlikely that fans will be permitted to attend League of Ireland games in the coming months or the end of rugby's Guinness PRO14 and Heineken Champions Cup seasons.
