About 175 people escaped from mandatory quarantineMore than 10,000 people stayed for ten days in designated hotels, with a Covid-19 positivity rate of 5.7 per cent, before the system was halted last week
Comment: Hope at last for tourism industry which still needs ongoing support Micheál Martin’s announcement was welcome but questions remain, such as how long will Mandatory Hotel Quarantine be kept in place and is there a successor to the flop that was the Stay and Spend Scheme?
Comment: Our urgent choice between living with or without new Covid-19 variantsMandatory hotel quarantine needs to be extended to all countries with ongoing transmission, which means everywhere for now
No new ‘variants of concern’ in Ireland since introduction of hotel quarantineDespite pressure from lobby groups to relax the mandatory hotel quarantine requirements, public health figures are happy that the measures to reduce Covid infections are working well
Irish airlines warn job cuts and route closures are coming without plan for summer restartRyanair says it may have to deploy aircraft elsewhere in Europe as Aer Lingus warns it could need state support to plug financial hole
Pay cuts, job losses or both needed at Aer Lingus, says chief executiveLynne Embleton says restructuring is necessary to ensure the short-term survival of the airline
How to manage: What happens if employees want to take foreign holidays?Since existing legislation does not cover Covid-19 travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine, employers and staff need to work together to address concerns
Airport boss says state must act urgently to mitigate damage dealt by CovidDAA chief executive Dalton Philips said the government must support the restarting of air travel and an exit from mandatory hotel quarantine
Exemption to hotel quarantine sought for ‘essential’ engineers by business groupsRepresentatives of the pharma, medtech and dairy sectors have met with Nphet and the HSE to request changes to the mandatory hotel quarantining system
Tony O’Brien: Our quarantine approach seems designed with failure in mind The government needs to follow Britain’s example on border health measures, and to face down disgruntled EU states
European Commission has no objection to Ireland’s quarantine list extensionIreland has added four more countries – France, Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg – to the list of countries from which travellers must book into a hotel for a period of 12 days
Donnelly to insist on hotel quarantine list changes despite FG oppositionMinister for Health fears new variants of Covid-19 could threaten vaccination rollout as hotel group requested to increase capacity
Niall Conroy: Forget diplomacy, it’s time to strong-arm the virusMandatory hotel quarantine is an essential pillar of Covid-19 prevention, but our diluted attempt at it is like using half an umbrella in a monsoon