Mandatory hotel quarantine should be extended to all arrivals - Clarke

(Above) Deputy Sorca Clarke.

Mandatory hotel quarantine should be extended to all non-essential arrivals into Ireland.

That's according to Deputy Sorca Clarke, who says that by only focussing on arrivals from 33 high risk countries the government is undermining Ireland's attempt to combat Covid-19.

From tomorrow, arrivals from the 33 'Category B' countries, which are mainly located in Africa and South America, will have to spend up to 14 nights under quarantine at a hotel owned by the Tifco hotel group, at a cost of almost €2,000. Arrivals from other countries without a negative PCR test will also be required to quarantine at a cost of €150 per day.

Deputy Clarke says that all non-essential arrivals into the country should be placed under mandatory hotel quarantine.

“It is simply unacceptable that while the Irish economy is in lockdown and our people being asked to make huge sacrifices that people are coming into the country for non-essential travel without even having to quarantine.

“For this reason I would like to echo the statements of our Transport spokesperson Darren O’Rourke in calling for all non-essential arrivals from all countries to have to quarantine.

“We still have large numbers of people coming in from Category 2 countries and other areas not covered by the government's 33 country list for discretionary and non-essential travel.

“There are variants of this virus with which are more highly contagious, have different symptoms and possibly some which may be resistant to some vaccines. To risk bringing these into the country is negligence.

“Nobody likes these measures but the more that the Covid numbers go up the longer strict lockdown measures will be prolonged. The onus is on the government now to prevent this," she said.