Hundreds of thousands traveled to Ireland from Covid hotspots in just four weeks

Hundreds of thousands of people still fly to Ireland from Covid-19 hotspots as the country struggles to stop the spread of the disease.

New figures have revealed that more than 191,000 flew here from countries including the United States, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal in a four-week period from September 7 to October 4.

Almost 19,000 landed at Dublin Airport from Italy, 15,000 from Spain, almost 10,000 from Portugal, more than 34,000 from the UK and more than 4,000 from the United States.

Thousands more flew to the Cork and Shannon terminals during the same period.

It means that nearly 7,000 people enter the country every day despite the increase in cases, while European countries threaten more closures as they try to suppress a second wave.

The figures were provided by the Minister of Transport, Eamon Ryan, to the co-leader of the Social Democrats, Roisin Shortall, in response to a parliamentary question.

Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Ms Shortall said the Government must act urgently.

She said: “As Ireland grapples with the issue of blocking a circuit breaker, nearly 50,000 people continue to fly into the country from abroad each week.

“It appears that there is a high probability that imported cases will spread throughout the community, and yet we do not have a system to monitor and enforce the restricted circulation guidelines.

“Other European countries, Germany, for example, require testing for anyone entering the country, but there is no such process here.

“With people facing a long winter with Covid restrictions, the government urgently needs to put controls on foreign travel to make sure it does not endanger public health.”

As of Monday, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said that there are no countries on Ireland’s Green Travel List.

And the government continues to discourage all non-essential travel.

But that hasn’t stopped people from leaving Ireland en masse for sunny countries.

Figures show that more than 172,000 left Ireland in one month and the most popular destinations were France, Greece and Spain.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said that Ireland will adhere to the European Union’s “traffic light” system for travel this week.

People traveling to or from countries in the green category will not have to restrict movement or isolate themselves.

For the amber and red countries, it is expected that travelers will need to isolate themselves.

But Donnelly said that tests at the airport will not be implemented at this time due to current capacity levels, but that they will happen and plans are in the works.

However, Sinn Fein transport spokesman Darren O’Rourke said Ireland cannot fully participate in the new travel approach if testing is not under way.

He said: “Due to government inaction, we are now likely to lose full participation in the EU approach, as the government has failed to install testing capabilities at our airports.

“These figures highlight the significant levels of travel from some countries with very high rates of Covid infection.

“It only takes an infected arrival from a high-risk country to put an entire community at risk if it is not quarantined.”

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has said that recorded flights last month have plunged nearly 65% ​​compared to September 2019.

While air traffic in the first nine months of this year fell almost 57%.

Dublin Airport recorded 21,218 flights in September 2019, but only 6,630 this year.

Cork Airport saw 2,004 flights land in September 2019, just 477 last month, while Shannon Airport saw 1,974 flights in September 2019, just 557 last month.

Peter Kearney, IAA executive director, said air traffic collapsed this year and aviation cannot bear these losses in the short to medium term.