“It seems logical if we’re now telling people not to travel to these countries that the people who have travelled to these countries would take additional precautions when they return.”
Irish people returning to the country from Spain and Italy will be asked not to go to work as part of a series of precautionary measures in an attempt to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Speaking on Morning Ireland on Friday, Minister for Health Simon Harris said that people returning to Ireland from both Spain and Italy would be met at airports by environmental health officers and told to restrict their movements, which includes not going to work.
“As of today, people who come back to Ireland from those countries will be given information at the airport and that information will tell them to restrict their movements for the next two weeks, what that effectively means is to not go to work, to lessen your social contact,” Harris said.
“They’ll be met by environmental health officers in the airport from today (Friday, 13 March), they’ll be given that leaflet and they’ll be asked to, not quite self-isolate but to restrict their movements, and that is another precautionary step we’re taking.
“It seems logical if we’re now telling people not to travel to these countries that the people who have travelled to these countries would take additional precautions when they return.”
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said all people coming back from Spain and Italy are being asked to restrict their movements for the next two weeks, which means not going to work | Read more coronavirus coverage: https://t.co/839hgCRs1u pic.twitter.com/9kqQLzY8Ck
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 13, 2020
On Thursday night, the Department of Foreign Affairs updated the security status of Spain to ‘avoid non-essential travel’, a measure which already applies to Italy. There are currently over 2,200 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Spain and over 12,400 cases in Italy.
Further travel advice is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs website here.
Minster Harris confirmed, meanwhile, that no specific restrictions would apply to Irish people returning from the Cheltenham festival, which comes to an end on Friday.
As the UK, as of now, is not deemed to be an affected area in the same way as Spain and Italy, Harris said, all people returning from Cheltenham will be met at the airport with advice, but not with the specific restrictions that apply to Spain and Italy.
Harris said that the government is acting on public health advice with regard to Cheltenham, which has been considered specifically in recent days, even though it would be “politically expedient” to take an alternative approach.
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