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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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India recorded 199,569 new cases yesterday and is not on the hotel mandatory list. How can the people have faith in a system like this. The countries must have been pulled randomly from a hat.
@Shane De Paor: They seem to be scared of Angela too
@Johannes Baader: That was my first thought as well on seeing the article. Officials in India have been talking about rapid spread and new variants with ‘immune escape’. Not sure whether that immune escape is referring to reinfections or a worry that the variants can bypass vaccines. Either way, bad news.
@Shane De Paor: google India’s population
@Sean Lucas: Im well aware of India’s population point is its out of control there and these are only the confirmed tested results im sure its a lot higher than this figure. Countries with way lower cases are on the list yet one of the highest is not.
@Shane De Paor: it depends on the local population. For instance Fuerteventura or Lanzarote islands change their status to red very quickly because the population is low so few cases make a huge difference which also have impact on the resources to treat people.
Additional the variants (mutations of the covid) are different in each region. This is the other reason to protect certain regions until the local population has been vaccinated to the level of “herd immunity” which is about 100% people vaccinated (100% of people without any medical condition that prevents them to be vaccinated such as HIV and so on)
A totally non-sensical policy. If somebody has been vaccinated in another country and test negative before getting on a plane they should not have to quarantine. The Government needs to get its act together and come up with logical policies based on moving out if this lockdown mentality. Clear, concise policies for travel need to be published and adhered to. Ireland depends on an open door philosophy. And why is no effort being made to get vaccines outside the EU process? The EU has made a mess of vaccine procurement and the government should be doing more on its own.
@jindublin: correct, I’ve come home from UK after 6 months,missed Xmas.Had my jabs and paid £60 for covit test before travelling but still have to isolate for 14 days.Mind boggles at this country sometimes. I can go to UK without test or quarantine…
@Angela O’regan: we don’t want other variants coming in so we can get out of lockdown
@Angela O’regan: It’s called the Irish Rip Off take your money and laugh in your face.
@Angela O’regan: @Angela O’regan: afaik you can get a second PCR after 5 days?
@talksense: nonsense
@talksense:
Ridiculous , we can’t keep the variants out , perhaps you’ve missed the fact that the replublic isnt t an island.
I’m over in Seattle. Its been a year and half now since been able to see and hug any family or friends. Just got the first vaccination shot. Hoping that everyone back home gets vaccinated soon and that maybe by October will be able to get back without having to quarantine in the hotel. Missing home so badly and zoom chats only go so far
@Brett Lawless: I am been unable to see my family because flights have been sold out since the airlines began to fly again last summer to the date the government announced the implementation of mandatory hotel quarantine.
After the announcement aerlingus grounded the fleet servicing the route to see my family.
Only one airline has kept the route but only one day per week … all sold out the next few months
I won’t be able to go to my homeland to see my elder parents or for any other genuine and imperative reason …. because of holiday makers and the vouchers policies from all the travels cancellations …. It’s how is the people is and the airlines more focused on their profits than in people in moment of great need
This is the most convoluted situation so far in the pandemic.
– You must have a hotel place booked
– The booking system is paused so you cannot book a place
– You cannot board a flight without a confirmation of a booking
– The system has a buffer for walkins.
So….if you are flying from, say Italy to Amsterdam to Cork on Saturday and were unable to book a room, do you risk flying to Cork because you may get stuck in the Netherlands and not allowed to board without a booking? Even though flights are not banned from entering Ireland and there is hotel walk in availability?
How the government can think anyone can make an informed decision about travel right now needs to have their head examined. What a complete shambles. There are people actually travelling for essential and emergency reasons and this only adds to their stress and uncertainty of their own personal situation.
@Seeking Truth: I would prefer this so we can start opening up
@talksense: this is not an either or situation. I mean kids in the same classroom all week aren’t close contacts.. That is how we will end up in lockdown for ever. 2% attributed to travel before this. So 98% of the issue isn’t being solved. (and that’s ignoring the ability to come in thru North) Don’t mix the 2 up.
It’s called the Irish Ripoff
The government are completely tying themselves in knots at this stage. I fail to see why a negative PCR test is not enough, like it is almost everywhere else. Supplementary measures like a home quarantine, with follow up test should be sufficient in most cases.
There seems to be a serious lack of imagination and logic to the way these proposals are being applied, the same could be said of the lockdown itself in Ireland. Expecting airlines to enforce the Irish Government’s policy at source airports is madness, so was the decision to effectively close the passport office with the huge backlog. Crazy, inept stuff.
I’m in Poland and the situation has gotten bad here again recently. They have had proportionate lockdowns etc, but hairdressers, regular businesses etc have been mostly open (with sensible restrictions) and they seem to be able to grade how they do things and react according to needs. Incidentally my partner got her Polish passport renewed in a week here, no closing of services like that. It does make you wonder, why does Ireland need to go full monty on everything (strictest lockdown, strictest quarantine rules etc)?
A little imagination in this increasingly parent-child like relationship wouldn’t go astray
@James Mc Sherry:
That’s because Covid policy is driven by hysterics on Joe Duffy , populist BS by the likes of Alan Kelly and his nonsense zero Covid and we’re ruled by an unelected committee
Does anyone know if these people are paying their hotel bills? What happens with the walk ins? Assume they must pay in advance? What if they don’t have the money to pay for their mandatory hotel stay? I suppose we the tax payer are being shafted on that one too?
@Keith O’Hanlon: and to add to this, only less than 50% of Irish residents/citizens own a credit card being able to make a booking. So what happens to the other half that has a debit cards capped at 800 a week?
@Sigfrid Blanc: debit cards aren’t capped at 800 per week would you stop.
@Fabio Dillon: my bad, that’s the cash withdrawal cap.
There is still a cap on debit cards per transaction or daily depending on the bank, ranging from 2000 to 5000.
The PCR test is to be completed 72 prior to boarding flights (And providing you test “NEGATIVE” you can board), therefore people will avoid making booking arrangements outside of this 72hr window for fear that if they test positive they cannot board flights. Also! including the fact that even if you cancel the hotel booking 48hrs in advance, the hotels still retain 200 Euro, hence! last minute bookings will increase. There should be a FULL refund for bookings cancelled, then people may book in advance and the GOVT/Hoteliers could be better prepared for room numbers.
@Xavier Burns: it isn’t 72 hours from departure time. The PCR test is 72 hours before the programme landing time and the time begins when the sample is taken.
So long flights and flights with connections is near impossible to meet the requirements.
And then always exist the probability to be infected between the sample is taken to arrival, higher likelihood when time is high.
And then comes PCRs results falsifications and so do it vaccination cards.
The only way to prevent these falsifications is mandatory hotel stay and screening at check in.
I doubt anyone sound of mind would be against of it. However the economic aspect and the rules, I think we all are in agreement there are unfair because it puts in the same bag people travelling for genuine and imperative reasons with just holiday makers ( tourism industry is closed so coming as tourists is a breach of the health temporary regulations)
Am I missing something here or is there a few thousand people quarantining at any one time in hotels in this country. I have this picture in my head of just a handful of people doing this.
@James Fox: last week they said 440 but had capacity for 600 something but now closed bookings due to demand and “increasing capacity” so who knows
@James Fox: i líve next to the crown plaza and holiday inn express hotels. Have only seen 1 group of three people so far. I walk and cycle past these hotels many times each day. It could be that I am missing them but for two hotels with maybe combined capacity of 300 to 400 rooms it seems very quiet
So Narnia, timbuktu, chronos, Hogwarts and the rest all make the red list, but India which is now becoming covid cluster central doesn’t make the list. Am I missing something here or what??. Are people tested for excessive booze or drugs in their systems when they decided to come up with this list cos it’s definitely not what you would expect when you wanna make sure MHQ happens for people who come from countries where covid is rampant instead of in some cases like Israel and the USA where people have actually been vaccinated
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: It is pure hysteria and theatrics to appease the constantly fearful and perpetually outraged. Countries with high incidences aren’t on the list while countries with low incidences are.
Should we not also MHQ people who test positive and their close contacts. Would they not be higher risk than people who are vaccinated and pcr tested.
Big funeral in Galway today, lots of English reg cars, bet they didn’t have to quarantine for 2 weeks. Gardai looking on.
i líve next to the crown plaza and holiday inn express hotels, walk and cycle past these many times each day. Have only see people, a group of three, once so far. Could be that I am missing them but it seems very quiet
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