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Updated 5 minutes ago
AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON mandatory hotel quarantine operations for passengers from high-risk countries will be announced this week, and the contract will be awarded to Tifco Hotel Group.
Tifco Hotel Group has 24 hotel properties, including Clontarf Castle, Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport, Holiday Inn Express next to Dublin Airport, and Travelodge hotels in both Dublin and Cork Airport.
The group has more than 2,550 hotel rooms in total.
The signing of the contract and the reservation portal are being finalized, and the online reservation system is expected to go live in the next few days and the passengers to go into quarantine later in the week.
On February 26, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly designated 13 other countries and territories as “Category 2 countries and territories.”
These countries / territories are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The other 20 currently on the list are: Angola, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of South Africa, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania. , United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
All passengers arriving in Ireland from these 33 countries must now complete a full mandatory 14-day self-quarantine period.
Hospitalizations
The latest figures show that, at 8 a.m. this morning, the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 is 359.
Eleven patients were admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours and 10 were discharged.
81 Covid-19 patients are currently in intensive care units across the country.
One Covid-19 patient was admitted to the ICU in the last 24 hours and two were discharged.
Health officials confirmed another 769 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland last night.
The National Public Health Emergency Team also reported two other deaths.
Speaking to Newstalk this morning, HSE chief Paul Reid said the latest Covid-19 case figures are “an early warning sign.”
“Overall, we are seeing a slight uptake of cases and hospitalizations,” Reid said.
He noted that the current number of hospitalizations is down 82% from a peak in January, but 3% more than last week.
“So it’s the first week that we haven’t seen a decrease and the first week that we’ve seen an increase in people hospitalized,” Reid said.
The UCI numbers, Reid added, are down 7% from last week.
Meanwhile, Professor Martin Cormican, HSE leader for infection control, said that the number of cases has stagnated or is possibly increasing, amid fears about a possible increase in Covid-19.
Professor Cormican’s comments on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland follow concerns expressed by Public Health in recent weeks about increased socialization.
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Professor Cormican said the number of cases is disappointing and urged the public to “be very careful” as “there is a risk where people gather.”
“There is a real danger of a sudden increase. Certainly we all hoped to be in a better place than we are, but we have to deal with the reality of where we are and we really have to be very careful, “he said.
The number of vaccines distributed so far is not enough to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the community, Professor Cormican said. “The more people gather inside, the faster the virus spreads.”
He said that while the situation in hospitals has improved and transmission in schools remains stable, there has been a further spread in workplaces and other settings.
“It makes no difference for the virus whether it is a wake or a birthday party,” said Professor Cormican.
Public health officials have previously warned of a “weekend effect” in the number of cases with numbers that tend to be lower in the early days of the week because many people wait until Monday or Tuesday to get tested. .
If a person has symptoms on a Friday, they can wait until early the following week to get tested, something that deputy chief medical officer Dr. Ronan Glynn warned against. If a person tests positive, their result will not appear in the daily figures until Tuesday or Wednesday onwards.
Members of NPHET have noted that they are not surprised by the high number of cases yesterday saying that a possible increase in infection has been well noted for several weeks, but said it serves as a warning that cases could continue to rise towards the end of this week.
With information from Christina Finn
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