Ireland to lengthen quarantine for partially vaccinated Britons

Partially vaccinated or unvaccinated visitors will be required to quarantine for 10 days

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People arriving from Britain into Ireland will be required to quarantine for 10 days if they are only partially vaccinated or unvaccinated, the Irish government has said.

Ireland will double the quarantine period for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated arrivals in response to the rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in Britain.

But plans are still underway to enable people to travel more freely between the two countries from mid-July, an Irish minister insisted.

Ireland’s transport minister, Eamon Ryan, told reporters on Tuesday: “It is just to reflect concern about the Delta variant and to try and hold back the development of that variant here as much as we can and give us time to get vaccines out to give us cover against it.”

He added that he hoped the 10-day quarantine for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated arrivals from Britain would only be in place until 19 July.

Ireland has the strictest travel restrictions in the EU. Its current advice against non-essential travel is set to remain in place until 19 July when it adopts the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate.

Passengers arriving into Ireland from Britain must currently present a negative test and quarantine at home for five days until they take a second post-arrival PCR test.

Travellers from Britain will now have to take an additional test after quarantining for 10 days.

There had been some hope that a travel bubble between the two countries would be introduced in order to allow families on both sides to see each other without needing to quarantine.

It comes after Boris Johnson delayed the lifting of remaining social distancing restrictions in England until 19 July amid concerns over the rapidly spreading Delta variant first identified in India.

Scientists have warned more than 40,000 people could die this summer as the Delta variant sweeps through the UK, even after the decision to postpone the lifting of lockdown.