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The Government has added 13 additional states to its list of “high risk” countries in the pandemic.
They are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
This brings to 33 the number of states on Ireland’s Category 2 list.
Regulations state that all arrivals, regardless of nationality, are subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Eighteen states were added to the list on February 12.
They were: Angola, Austria, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Brazil and South Africa have been on the list since February 5.
A National Variants of Concern Surveillance Group (VOCS) has also been established to monitor and advise on variants of concern.
The group will inform the Medical Director on the variants of concern, who in turn will report to the Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly.
Yesterday, you were concerned that a case of the B1525 variant had been identified in Ireland.
Health officials said the variant, which was first identified in the UK and Nigeria last December, was concerning because it possesses the amino acid change E484K, which has been associated with a reduced response to neutralizing antibodies.
It also has a deletion in the spike protein, which has been associated with increased transmissibility.
Read more:
16,000 Irish residents arrive in the state in recent weeks
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