A further 16 countries have been added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list for international travel into Ireland the Minister for Health has confirmed.
Starting from 4am on Thursday, 15 April, visitors from this country must have booked themselves into a designated quarantine hotel at their own expense upon arrival into Ireland.
Minister Donnelly said: “Protecting public health as a matter of urgency has been to the fore of these decisions around mandatory quarantine. This is another strong move following public health advice relating to Variants of Concern with COVID-19.
"These variants pose a significant risk to our fight against this disease and our vaccination programme. This decision also reinforces Ireland’s biosecurity, ensuring we have the strongest measures in place in Europe.”
The 16 countries are:
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- France
- Italy
- Kenya
- Luxembourg
- Pakistan
- Turkey
- the USA
- Canada
- Armenia
- Bermuda
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Curaçao
- Maldives
- Ukraine
Three countries are also to be removed from the list: Israel, Albania and St Lucia but those currently in quarantine are expected to complete it.
In addition, all travellers into Ireland from non-designated countries must continue to adhere to ‘Home Quarantine’, and in addition to their arrival negative PCR test, from next week they must have booked through the HSE an appointment for a further test at day 5.
Minister Donnelly added: “The Government continues to advise against all non-essential international travel at this time. We can see a permanent pathway out of this pandemic but can’t allow Variants of Concern to set us back on the progress we have made.
“I would like to particularly thank my Ministerial colleagues in the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Transport and Defence, my officials in the Department of Health and across multiple government departments and other agencies in ensuring we can continue to act on public health advice.”
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