Department of Foreign Affair urges against non-essential travel to seven countries

Popular holiday destinations are among the seven countries.

Following a warning last night that the public should exercise a high degree of caution when travelling to any EU country, the Department of Foreign Affairs have now specified seven countries as essential-travel only. The countries involved in the latest warning are: Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Spain. Travel to Italy is advised against entirely. Notices have already been issued regarding non-essential travel to China and Iran. The decision has been taken in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. On Friday (13 March), the World Health Organisation had warned the Europe had become the epicentre of the pandemic. The Spanish government is set to follow the example of Italy and Denmark in ordering a near-total shutdown later today. Jet2, a United Kingdom-based airline, has turned around some of its planes which were already en route to Spain. They have also suspended flights to Krakow. Similarly, Irish airline Ryaniar have suspended all flights to Poland between 15 March and 31 March. https://twitter.com/simoncoveney/status/1238855754729361409?s=20