Tifco Hotel Group will be awarded a quarantine contract

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The contract for the mandatory hotel quarantine system will be awarded to Tifco Hotel Group, as RTÉ News has understood.

The group has 24 hotel properties with more than 2,550 rooms in total.

Hotels include the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express next to Dublin Airport, and Travelodge hotels at Dublin and Cork airports.

The single contract will see the hotel group provide room and board for those who have to self-quarantine.

It also covers arrangements for transportation to hotels, as well as security and testing there.

Earlier today, the Minister of Public Expenditure said that the hotel quarantine system for arrivals from designated countries was due to take effect by the end of this week.

Michael McGrath told RTÉ News that his cabinet colleague, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, will describe how the regime will work in the coming days.

The news comes two weeks after legislation allowing mandatory hotel quarantine was enacted, and amid ongoing concern by thousands of people flying into the country, particularly from “high-risk” countries like Brazil and South Africa.

There are 33 countries, mainly from Africa and South America, on the government’s Category 2 list of “high risk” countries.

Brazil and South Africa were the first two nations designated as high risk on February 5, and 18 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.

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela were added to the list in late February.

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“We have made great progress on this issue,” said Mr. McGrath, “and now an agreement has been reached with the selected operator and in the next day or so Minister Stephen Donnelly will outline more details of the operational nature of the quarantined hotel, with a view to quarantine in hotels that will take effect later this week. “

When asked what the delay has been since the legislation was passed and then enacted, he said: “This is a very complex issue and it does involve a very significant interference with people’s civil liberties, but it is for the common good. and that is why the Government was determined to do this correctly and to do it.

“In the coming days, the Health Minister will outline all operational details with a view to the hotel quarantine going into effect in Ireland later this week, for people who currently hail from what are 33 countries, and will be considered in agreement with the council of health to amend that list in the next days “.

Meanwhile, Mr. McGrath confirmed that the Government will engage with the National Public Health Emergency Team over the next week to discuss what restrictions can be eased, despite new Covid-19 case numbers remaining consistently. above 500 per day in recent days.

(Image: Rolling News)

“While it appears that progress has stalled and it is certainly the case that the lower we can get the virus numbers, the greater the set of options it offers the government in the coming days, we are truly aware of the enormous efforts. and the sacrifices people continue to make to suppress this virus.

“That is why for the next week we will focus on low-risk activities that can greatly improve well-being and mental health because I think it is important that we give people some relief without compromising or jeopardizing the enormous progress that we have achieved as a country “.

He said Ireland is still “among the best countries in Europe” when it comes to new case numbers, “so we must acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the people.”

“I know it is difficult when we continue to ask people to do more and to continue their efforts, but we have made great progress and I think our focus as a government in the coming week will be to engage with public health experts in the areas of low risk: activities that will greatly improve mental health and well-being with an emphasis on being outdoors ”.

He said that it would be “useless to speculate on the details” of what those activities will be, “because people want certainty and they will hear from the Government what the final decision is, but what we have pointed out for a period of time now is that the areas where we will be focusing on low-risk areas, which will improve well-being and mental health because we recognize the enormous challenge that all this represents for people and for our society ”.

He said there are “ongoing discussions” at the cabinet level regarding Covid-19 and the restrictions, “but a few weeks ago we made it clear that the restrictions we had decided would remain in effect until April 5, so now for the next week or so. We will reassess the situation in light of the prevailing public health councils and the situation with the virus. “

“We have made massive progress, we would like to make more progress over the next week and we want to give people hope and we recognize the enormous efforts that people have made.

Regarding vaccines, he said that the government is “very confident that we will see fairly rapid progress during the second quarter” in terms of supply and administration, “and that will give the government more options in relation to reopening the society and the reopening of our economy. “

He added: “I know it has been a challenge and it has been frustrating. The limitation has been the international supply of our vaccines, but everything indicates that we will see a tripling of the supply of vaccines in Quarter 2 versus Quarter.” 1 and we will make sure they are administered as quickly as possible so that we can all feel the benefits as a society of this vaccination program. “

Additional info: Conor Kane



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