Ireland to maintain 14‑day quarantine on British travellers while Covid cases stay high
Scots threaten to impose same restriction on English visitors if coronavirus infections rise again south of the border
Julieanne Corr and John Boothman
Sunday June 28 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Ireland is expected to maintain a 14-day quarantine for travellers from the British mainland next month, despite its plans to form air bridges with other European countries, including Spain and Greece.
And English holidaymakers crossing the border into Scotland could be told to go into quarantine for two weeks if cases of coronavirus rise again.
A memo given to an Irish cabinet committee on Covid-19 last week noted it was “highly unlikely” that Britain would be included in Ireland’s safe travel list.
Travellers from Northern Ireland would not have to quarantine. The final “green list” of countries will not be published until July 9.
The memo said that “mandatory restricted movement” would be placed on countries such as Britain, where new cases remained high. It said that this was because Britain’s handling of Covid-19 was “significantly poorer” than Ireland’s.
Yesterday, Tony Holohan, Ireland’s chief medical officer, expressed concern that a resumption of overseas travel would raise Ireland’s low levels of Covid-19. He tweeted: “We move to phase three [of reopening] on Monday, June 29.
“Very low levels of #COVID19. What worries me most now is travel from overseas and I fear many planning foreign trips. 2020 is a year for a staycation. Stay in Ireland, spend locally and follow public health advice.”
The Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) agreed that excluding Britain from Ireland’s safe travel list was the right thing to do, given that its daily new coronavirus cases were still “at four figures”. Pat Dawson, chief executive at ITAA, said: “There has to be a bar of what level countries are at [in tackling the virus], and it looks like the UK certainly are not at that level yet.
“You only have to look at the last week, where hundreds of thousands of [British] people were crowded on beaches. We cannot have air bridges or corridors with countries where the medics are saying it’s not under control.”
In Scotland, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the country was edging towards “total elimination” of Covid-19 after no new deaths were recorded on a weekday for the first time since March.
But Scottish government sources say progress being made in suppressing the virus could be undone when the tourism season begins next month, with an expected influx of visitors from England.
At present, anyone coming from overseas must enter quarantine for two weeks or face a £480 fine, similar to measures in England.
A Scottish government source said ministers were considering the option of applying the same rules to visitors from England if Covid-19 cases rise.
The Conservatives in Scotland have criticised the SNP for acting more slowly than England in reopening the tourism industry, claiming it will cost £11m.
The first minister intends to restart tourism on July 15.
Kingston Mills, professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin, said that restricting travellers from the British mainland was right. “Britain is not one of the countries that has done well in controlling the infection so I don’t see it as being a green country,” he said.
“There are several other countries that are way ahead of the UK so I don’t see the problem with some of those.”
Mills added that the alternative was to introduce mandatory testing for incoming travellers at airports, which is being done in countries such as Austria. “This would require the individual to stay overnight in a hotel on arrival and if they tested negative the next day they would be free to go.
“If they tested positive then they would have to stay there for 14 days or so. It would be tricky to implement and would mean that our testing turnaround would have to be a lot quicker.”
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