Ireland cuts travel ‘Green List’ down to four countries, bans dining indoors in Donegal

Ireland removed Germany, Poland and Lithuania from its travel “green list”, leaving just four countries exempt from a 14-day quarantine for arriving passengers.

Ireland, which has some of the tightest travel restrictions in Europe, is only allowing quarantine-free travel from countries with a COVID-19 infection rate of under 25 cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days.

As a result, travellers arriving from all countries other than Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Liechtenstein must go into quarantine for 14 days from Monday next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Three of those countries have restrictions on travellers from Ireland, which currently has a COVID-19 infection rate of 71 cases per 100,000 people, according to the European Centre for Disease Control.

The Irish government has said it will adopt a more liberal system of coordinated travel restrictions proposed by the European Commission once they are adopted in mid-October.

Meanwhile, The Irish government on Thursday imposed tightened COVID-19 restrictions in a second region, banning indoor restaurant dining and non-essential travel in the northwestern county of Donegal a week after similar measures were imposed in Dublin.

Donegal, which has registered over 120 cases per 100,000 population over the past 14 days, borders the United Kingdom region of Northern Ireland, which earlier this week tightened COVID-19 restrictions due to a surge in cases.

The new rules will remain in place for three weeks, the government said in a statement.

Ireland on Thursday had a COVID-19 infection rate of 71 cases per 100,000 people, the 17th highest of the 31 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control.