The United States of America, Canada, France, Belgium and Italy are among 16 new countries that have been added to Ireland's mandatory hotel quarantine list.
Earlier this evening, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed the news.
From next week, travellers from these places must spend 12 nights and pay at least €1,875 (£1,614) to stay at one of the designated quarantine hotels across the Republic.
The 16 countries are:
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- France
- Italy
- Kenya
- Luxembourg
- Pakistan
- Turkey
- the USA
- Canada
- Armenia
- Bermuda
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Curaçao
- Maldives
- Ukraine
The countries added to the list have been added due to the presence of variants of concern and the measure will come into effect from 04:00 local time on 15 April.
Anyone currently in mandatory quarantine who has travelled from or through these states must complete their period of quarantine, the Department of Health has said.
Minister Donnelly said: “Protecting public health as a matter of urgency has been to the fore of these decisions around mandatory quarantine. This is another strong move following public health advice relating to Variants of Concern with COVID-19.
"These variants pose a significant risk to our fight against this disease and our vaccination programme. This decision also reinforces Ireland’s biosecurity, ensuring we have the strongest measures in place in Europe.”
The Cabinet has also agreed to remove Albania, Israel and Saint Lucia from the mandatory quarantine list.
Minister Donnelly added: “The Government continues to advise against all non-essential international travel at this time. We can see a permanent pathway out of this pandemic but can’t allow Variants of Concern to set us back on the progress we have made.
“I would like to particularly thank my Ministerial colleagues in the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Transport and Defence, my officials in the Department of Health and across multiple government departments and other agencies in ensuring we can continue to act on public health advice.”
The full list of countries that require mandatory hotel quarantines in Ireland can be found here.
