The mandatory hotel quarantine booking system has been temporarily suspended as it’s capacity is currently being reviewed.
Tonight, the Department of Health announced that the Tifco Hotel Group, which is currently facilitating the mandatory quarantine system, has agreed to pause the booking portal.
Those who have already made booking have not been affected and bookings can still be made for April 19 onwards.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “This has been done as a precautionary measure to enable further assessment of capacity within the mandatory hotel quarantine system for the coming days.
“Those who have already made their booking for mandatory hotel quarantine are not affected. Bookings can still be made for dates from Monday 19 April onwards.
“The temporary pause will be kept under ongoing review should additional capacity become available.
“The public health advice remains strongly against all non-essential international travel.
“Mandatory hotel quarantine is a public health measure put into place in order to protect Ireland from importation of COVID-19, particularly variants of concern.”
Meanwhile, three countries were officially let off the mandatory hotel quarantine list yesterday evening, according to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Israel, Albania, and St Lucia have all been taken off the list which saw a massive increase in potential names last Friday.
The USA, Canada, and France were among the big name countries reportedly being added to the list, which Minister Donnelly confirmed in a statement yesterday evening.
He said: “Ireland’s system of mandatory hotel quarantine is a key element in the protection of public health, especially during the present critical period for our COVID-19 vaccination programme.
"In the coming days I intend to designate a number of additional states so as to ensure that Ireland is protected as far as possible from importation of Variants of Concern, which pose a significant risk to our fight against this disease.”
The full list of additional countries and territories which the Minister intends to add to the list are: Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Pakistan, Turkey, the USA, Canada, Armenia, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Curaçao, Maldives, Ukraine.
People who have arrived from any of the three states removed from the list are free to leave their quarantine hotel - however the requirement to stay at home for 14 days after arrival will still apply like all travellers into Ireland.
Israel, in particular, was a controversial addition to the quarantine list, with the country all but back to normal after the massive success of their early rollout vaccine programme.
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