Travellers from other countries wishing to enter Ireland will no longer be obliged to follow mandatory hotel quarantine requirements, as such a measure has been lifted by the Irish government.
According to the country’s Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly, the quarantine requirement has been reduced progressively in the recent months, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“The mandatory hotel quarantine system was introduced as an exceptional public health measure at a time that our country was contending with the very serious risk of importation of variants of concern that had the potential to overwhelm our health service and, in particular, to undermine Ireland’s Covid-19 vaccination programme,” Donnelly pointed out in this regard, as reported by BTN Europe.
He stressed that the most significant number of persons in mandatory hotel quarantines reached the highest number on 9, 2021, with 1,008 people accommodated in such designed places.
“The successful operation of mandatory hotel quarantine has played a central role in protecting the population, maintaining control of the disease, and enabling the safe relaxation of restrictions on our economy and society,” Donnelly pointed out in this regard.
The Irish Minister of Health also stressed that during the time that such a scheme was applied, a total of 10,294 people followed quarantine rules, while 593 of them subsequently tested positive for the COVID-19.
Travellers from other territories with high COVID-19 infection rates were obliged to pay for a 12-night stay from selected, designed hotels in Ireland.
For a 12-night stay, passengers were obliged to pay €1,875 (£1,614) per person; however, they could end their self-isolation period on the tenth day if they presented a negative result of the COVID-19 test.
Ireland has reported 1,335 COVID-19 cases of infections, in the last 24 hours, according to the figures published by the World Health Organization.
The same source shows that a total of 383,218 people have tested positive for the Coronavirus in Ireland since the start of the pandemic, while 5,209 people have died.
Such figures, as well as the epidemiological situation in other countries, pushed the authorities in Ireland to impose entry bans and other preventive measures in order to stop the rapid spread of the virus as well as its new strains.
Authorities in Ireland continue to oblige unvaccinated travellers reaching the country from outside the European Union and European Economic Area to undergo PCR test before travelling to Ireland, fill in the passenger locator form and follow the two weeks mandatory quarantine rule.
>>Travelling to Ireland Amid COVID-19: Current Entry Rules & Restrictions
