PEOPLE TRAVELLING FROM 16 further countries are required to isolate in Ireland’s mandatory quarantine hotels as of this morning.
Travellers from a list of designated countries are required to spend a period of time in a designated hotel after arriving into the country.
Today’s additions bring to 71 the total number of countries on the list.
The new states on the list as of today are:
The full list of designated states is available to view here.
All passengers arriving into Ireland need to complete a passenger locater form and provide a recent ‘not detected’ Covid-19 PCR test result.
People arriving in from the list of designated states must pre-book and pre-pay to stay in a mandatory hotel quarantine facility.
On Monday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that mandatory hotel quarantine bookings have been “paused” on a precautionary basis, in order to ramp up capacity in the system.
Donnelly confirmed that no bookings in mandatory hotel quarantine will be available until next Monday.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Six One News, Donnelly said that in the 18 days that mandatory hotel quarantine has been in place, the number of countries on the ‘category 2′ list has increased from 33 countries up to 71 countries.
“There is still a high-level of walk-ins which shouldn’t be happening,” he said. “Some of the airlines which are meant to not be allowing people on the planes, are letting them on so we know Minister [for Transport Eamon] Ryan is engaging with the carriers on that.”
The minister later confirmed to The Journal that there will be hotel capacity for international arrivals coming from today without a pre-booked quarantine room as there is a buffer in place to accommodate walk-ins. However the pressures on capacity are due to the number of arrivals coming without a prior booking.
Donnelly added that from Monday, capacity would increase from 650 rooms to about 960 rooms. From Monday week, over 1,300 rooms will be available in the mandatory hotel quarantine system, he said.
The minister is of the view that airline carriers are legally obliged to refuse boarding if someone doesn’t have a pre-booked room, stating it is an essential part of the system. However it was clarified this evening that there is no ban on flights arriving in to the country.
The Department of Health has said that those who have already made their bookings are not affected, and people can still book dates from Monday 19 April onwards.
The temporary pause will be kept under ongoing review should additional capacity become available, the Department said, while still advising against international travel.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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