merrion street

The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has today revoked the designations which have been in place for arrivals from Albania, Israel and St. Lucia under the system of mandatory hotel quarantine.  This change is on the advice of the Acting Chief Medical Officer who in turn is supported by an Expert Advisory Group on Travel.

Having regard to the substantially improved epidemiological situation in the states concerned, arrangements have been made on an exceptional basis for the small number of persons who have arrived in Ireland from any of these three states in recent days, and who have not been in any other designated state in the 14 days before their arrival in Ireland, to be permitted to leave mandatory hotel quarantine as soon as they wish. The legal requirement for such travellers to quarantine at home for 14 days, unless he or she has obtained a “not detected” PCR test on Day 5 or later after arrival in Ireland remains.

Minister Donnelly 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 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.

ENDS