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17th Jul 2020

US won’t be on Green List and Britain “unlikely” to be on it, says Simon Coveney

Alan Loughnane

Simon COveney

“I think it’s very unlikely our closest neighbour either will be under that threshold that we set.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the United States will not be on the Green List of safe-travel countries which is due to be published this Monday.

Under current guidelines, people travelling to Ireland are supposed to self-quarantine for two weeks before rejoining the community.

They’re also required to fill out a form with contact details as well as information about where they’ve come from and where they plan to isolate in Ireland.

However, the Government has promised to publish a Green List of countries with similar or lower levels of Covid-19 than Ireland where these measures will no longer apply.

Speaking on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk, Coveney also said that Britain is unlikely to be on the list.

“I think it’s very unlikely our closest neighbour either will be under that threshold that we set,” he said.

“That’s really unfortunate, because the two countries we would like to be opening up to in terms of international travel are the UK and US, given the integration between our economy and those two countries.”

He said the decision on the list was not a political one and was based on numbers and advice.

“This is not on the basis of politics – it’s on the basis of epidemiological data and numbers, so we can compare Ireland to other countries,” Coveney said.

“Then we can put people on a green list that we regard as representing no higher risk than Ireland represents.”

Coveney also said that the numbers of people arriving from the US are very low compared to normal, at just 5% of usual traffic and that those arriving are taking into account the need to quarantine.

“As you would have heard on many media outlets, when they’re interviewed in the airport they understand they are expected to quarantine for 14 days – and the vast majority are planning for that,” Coveney said.

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