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28th Jan 2021

Leo Varadkar says banning travel from outside the EU to inside the EU shouldn’t be ruled out

Rudi Kinsella

covid travel

Varadkar also said: “I think there is a very high probability that by September we will be able to have offered the vaccine to every adult.”

Leo Varadkar has said that banning travel from outside the EU to inside the EU shouldn’t be ruled out.

Speaking on The Tonight Show on Virgin Media on Wednesday, An Tánaiste said that Irish residents and citizens will be subject to mandatory hotel quarantine if they don’t have a negative PCR test after arriving into the country.

Varadkar added: “One thing that may happen on a European level, I wouldn’t rule out, banning travel from outside the EU into the EU. That’s where we need to be using hotel quarantine.”

He also said that Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly’s prediction that “every citizen” will be offered a vaccine by September still has a high probability of happening.

He said: “I think there is a very high probability that by September we will be able to have offered the vaccine to every adult”.

He added the caveat that there are a number of variable factors that may affect the current projection, and that 50,000 people will be vaccinated in Ireland this week.

Speaking on Wednesday, Stephen Donnelly defended his prediction that every citizen in Ireland would be offered a Covid-19 vaccine by September, saying that “it wasn’t a promise, it was heavily caveated”, and that, despite recent setbacks, he is hopeful it can still be fulfilled.

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