Taoiseach says prospect of air travel is months rather than weeks away

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government will strengthen requirements around people travelling into Ireland.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the prospect of air travel from Ireland is months rather than weeks away.

Everyone who arrives in the State to stay, whether Irish or from abroad, is being asked to self-isolate for 14 days to ensure that anyone with Covid-19 does not infect others.

It comes amid calls for tougher laws to require people arriving into the country to tell authorities where they will be self-isolating.

Mr Varadkar said: “The very strong advice from Government is that anyone entering our country, whether they are an Irish citizen or not, needs to quarantine and self-isolate for 14 days with the exception of certain key workers. We are going to strengthen that over the next few weeks.”

He was speaking at a visit to a contact tracing centre in Dublin today.

“Of course we all look forward to air travel in the future,” he added. “We’re an island nation and a globalised economy. We need to return to business and leisure travel at some point but that really is premature at this stage.

“The European Union and the aviation authorities are thinking about that and how we can return to safe air travel but that is months rather than weeks away.”

Mr Varadkar said he is more confident that the country can begin to reopen from next week.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will make a recommendation to Government on Friday.

Outdoor construction work, DIY shops and small outside gatherings will be allowed from Monday May 18 if the Government gets the go-ahead from the NPHET.

“It is fair to say that everything is going in the right direction but a decision has yet to be made about whether we will get to ease restrictions on Monday,” said Mr Varadkar.

“As we ease restrictions, personal responsibility and personal discipline is going to be all the more important because we will be meeting each other more and more people will be going to work.”

He said the Government will issue guidance in the next few days about making and wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

It comes as chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said on Tuesday that there is no plan to make the wearing of face masks compulsory.

Senior Government official Liz Canavan said work is ongoing at Government level on the use of face coverings in public.

“Work is ongoing around guidance and practical communication about the face coverings and how they can be made at home. A key message will be how to safely use face coverings because the evidence is clear. If face masks are not used properly then they can have the effect of increasing the risk of transmission.

“We will have more information for the public about face coverings in the coming days.”

Ahead of some of the restrictions possibly being lifted next week, Ms Canavan warned the public to remain vigilant.

Ms Canavan said the Government does not want to have to reintroduce measures in future, as some other countries have had to do due to a spike in coronavirus infections.

“It is also important to remember that we have not started to ease restrictions yet. Every day counts in terms of assessing where we are and how we can move on.”

Meanwhile, a public health expert has said a  lack of community testing for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland is putting the island of Ireland at risk.

Dr Gabriel Scally, president of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, said plans to control the virus remain different between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

He told Newstalk FM: “Certainly in the North, and the rest of the UK, they’re not doing testing in the community. Unless you can test in the community, how are you going to know if the infection is coming back unless you wait until people are carried in sick into hospitals?”

The coronavirus death toll in Ireland rose to 1,488 on Tuesday after a further 24 deaths were announced.

Another 107 positive cases were confirmed, taking the total since the outbreak began to 23,242.

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