DUBLIN, Jan 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ireland plans to end a ban on travel to the country from Britain on Jan 6 and replace it with stricter COVID-19 testing measures as it seeks to stop the spread of a highly infectious new variant of the virus, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.
Ireland banned passenger flights and ferries on Dec 21. Some 30,000 people had travelled to Ireland from Britain in the previous two weeks, during which time the new variant was spreading rapidly in parts of Britain.
Passengers flying on non-essential business from Britain after Jan 6 will need to produce a negative test taken three days before their flight, Coveney told the Irish Independent newspaper.
They will also be asked to restrict their movements for at least five days from their arrival and can move freely only if they then receive a second negative test.
“We’re planning to end the travel ban with the UK on Jan 6 but replace it with a more restrictive set of travel regulations between Britain and Ireland,” he said.
“We are anxious to move away from a travel ban, which we don’t think is realistic and there does need to be travel facilitated between Britain and Ireland for lots of reasons.”Advertisement
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly again in Ireland and health officials have said that it has found seven cases of the new variant from 77 positive tests that subsequently underwent genomic sequencing.
The National Public Health Emergency Team said separately that Ireland had under-reported coronavirus cases in recent days by thousands more than previously known as its system came under strain.
More than 9,000 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have yet to been added to the official tally of confirmed cases, the National Public Health Emergency Team said. A day earlier it had estimated the number of positive tests still pending registration at just 4,000.
Ireland has gone from having the lowest infection rate in the European Union just two weeks ago to having the fastest rate of deterioration, after shops and large parts of the hospitality sector were allowed to reopen for most of December.
A very large volume of positive tests since Christmas has led to a delay in positive swabs being formally confirmed as new individual cases. Ireland formally reported a daily record 1,754 confirmed cases on Friday, surpassing 1,500 daily cases for the fourth day in a row.
