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PEOPLE will be able to fly to Germany, Poland, Cyprus and other European destinations without Covid restrictions for vacations and other business starting next Monday under changes in government travel advice.
ánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that the Green List will become “a true green list” that will allow people to travel to various European destinations, including on vacation, without having to restrict their movements for 14 days when they return to Ireland.
The Government’s previous general advice for people to avoid all non-essential foreign travel, including Green List countries, has now been changed.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said that while Irish Covid rules would not apply to passengers flying to and from countries on the revised ‘Green List’, they would still be subject to those countries’ Covid rules, including possible testing and quarantine. “There is a factor that we do not control, which is what other countries may demand of it,” he said.
“It has changed,” a coalition spokesperson confirmed to Independent.ie on Wednesday. “Some countries will be added and removed from the Green List tomorrow (Thursday), but it will only go into effect on Monday.”
The Green Travel List will include a number of countries added and removed based on the most recent data from the European Center for Disease Control. Ireland is adopting the “traffic light” system across the EU to travel safely, but pending formal approval next month, the existing Green List will be updated using the same criteria.
This will now happen every Thursday and the changes will take effect the following Monday, the spokesperson said.
This means that countries with an incidence rate of less than 25 cases per 100,000 during the last 14 days will appear on the green list. According to the most recent data from the European Center for Disease Control, the countries on the list will likely include Germany (22.7), Poland (19), Finland (10.6), Lithuania (18.4), Estonia (24 , 7), Iceland (16.2), Cyprus (5.7), Latvia (4.1) and Liechtenstein (7.8)
Under the changes, people will no longer be warned against all non-essential foreign travel, as happened when the Green List was originally published in July, causing confusion. Instead, they will be exempt from Covid rules when traveling to Green List countries.
There was widespread confusion when the original list was published in July, as the coalition insisted that people should avoid all non-essential travel, even to Green List locations. The sole purpose of the list was to inform people returning from the places on it that they did not have to restrict their movements for 14 days.
But the Department of Foreign Affairs’ travel advice now states that ‘Green List’ locations are exempt from advice against non-essential travel abroad and that ‘normal precautions’ apply.
“The request to restrict their movements does not apply to people arriving in Ireland from these places,” adds the council.
Currently, the Green List includes Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Norway, all of which have their own quarantine or other restrictions on arrivals from other jurisdictions. Four countries on the current list Greece, Greenland, Italy and Slovakia have no such restrictions. However, their increased incidence rate of the virus will likely remove them from the list when it updates on Thursday.
All passengers arriving at Irish ports and airports will be required to complete a passenger locator form. Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on RTÉ One on Tuesday, Mr. Varadkar confirmed the changes in government travel advice.
“The travel policy has changed and with that the travel advice has changed. So we are an island nation, we need to be connected to the rest of the world, not only for business and tourism, but also so that people can see friends, family and relatives, ”he said.
He said that pending the adoption of the traffic light system across the EU, the coalition was “aligning” our Green List with the proposed metrics.
“Any country that has an incidence of less than 25 per 100,000 for 14 days is on the Green List and that is a true green list.
“By green we mean that we are saying you can travel to those countries without restrictions and of course there is no risk, but these are all countries that have a lower incidence of the virus than Ireland.”
Mr. Varadkar said that people “can if they want” to vacation in these countries.
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