Ireland will adopt a COVID-19 certificate to help citizens travel more freely across the European Union “as early as possible” and not necessarily by late July as previously flagged, a senior minister said on Friday.
Ireland has the strictest travel curbs in the 27-nation bloc, advising citizens against non-essential travel, imposing fines on people travelling to airports to go on holiday and a two-week mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from a number of countries.
“The finalised date for Ireland is being worked on and will be announced next week. The government’s view is that we want to participate in this as early as possible,”Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said told national broadcaster RTE.
The head of global industry group IATA, Irishman Willie Walsh, warned on Wednesday that Ireland’s air connectivity is likely to shrink by 30% and may need five years to recover from Europe’s most “repressive” travel restrictions.A COVID certificate would be handed out for free by health authorities in EU countries to people who received a vaccine, had a negative test or are immune, having recovered from COVID.
It is also understood that the Irish Government will not permit tourists from other member states if they arrive with a rapid antigen Covid-19 test, as opposed to a PCR test.
SOURCE-reuters