EXEMPTIONS FROM MANDATORY hotel quarantine for fully vaccinated people travelling into Ireland from a designated country are now in place.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced the change in a tweet this afternoon.

“Regulations have been signed and are in operation from today to allow for a limited number of exemptions from Mandatory Hotel Quarantine,” said Minister Donnelly

While fully vaccinated people travelling from a listed country will no longer need to be quarantined in a hotel, they are still obliged to quarantine at home for two weeks. They must also present a negative PCR test.

Regulations have been signed and are in operation from today to allow for a limited number of exemptions from Mandatory Hotel Quarantine.
Those exempted must still complete home quarantine. They must also have a negative PCR test.
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— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) April 17, 2021

However, only people who have received EMA approved vaccines will be exempt from mandatory hotel quarantine. These are Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen.

There have also been exemptions made for families travelling from a designated country with a newborn baby.

They will still need to present a negative PCR test, but will be permitted to quarantine at home rather than entering mandatory hotel quarantine.

The government originally announced the measure on Thursday night, after facing criticism from vaccinated Israeli citizens, as well as political will from within the government.

From today, it’s expected that there will be a total of 959 rooms available for people entering mandatory hotel quarantine. There will be additional capacity added to the system in the coming weeks, with total capacity expanding to 1,607 by Monday 26 April.

People travelling from any one of the 71 designated countries will have to complete mandatory hotel quarantine.

Since the system was established, 18 people have tested positive for Covid-19. Four of these cases have been probable variants of concern.