Travel restrictions and mandatory isolation measures are consistent with World Health Guidelines and that we should implement such measures as a matter of urgency.

Mr Harris was speaking at an emergency meeting of the European Health Ministers in Brussels.

Harris made his comments at an emergency meeting of the European Health Ministers in Brussels.

The National Public Health Emergency Team is to immediately ramp up warning campaigns about the spread of coronavirus at ports, airports, schools, and public offices.

Irish people are being advised not to travel to certain parts of Italy due to an outbreak of the coronavirus.

A leading intensive care consultant has warned that there are not enough ICU beds in the country’s hospitals in the event of an outbreak of the coronavirus in Ireland.

Ireland and other EU countries have been told to be on alert for possible cases of the coronavirus.

The National Public Health Emergency Team says Ireland will continue to monitor the situation regarding coronavirus.

Bacteria that are resistant to medicines are being passed into humans from the food chain, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has warned.

Three hospitals have issued visitor bans on the public after the HSE confirmed the country is in the grip of a major flu outbreak.

A new respiratory virus has been detected in a severely-ill patient from the Middle East who is being treated in a British hospital.

FEARS that the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix may be linked to a chronic sleep disorder have been fuelled by data that has emerged just weeks before the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control concludes a review on its safety.

THE German authorities have admitted they are not sure of the source of one of the biggest outbreaks of deadly E coli contamination ever that has already claimed 16 lives and infected more than 1,000 people.

Shannon Airport, which reopened this afternoon with no scheduled departures, will close again at 7pm tonight, according to the Irish Aviation Authority.

Shannon Airport has reopened this afternoon with no scheduled departures for the rest of the day, while the UK has announced that their 'no-fly' zone will stay until early tomorrow morning.

Shannon Airport has reopened this afternoon, however there will be no scheduled departures for the rest of the day.

It is now estimated that as many as 30,000 Irish people could be stranded abroad, unable to get home.

MORE then a million Irish people can expect to get swine flu this autumn and up to 2,500 could die as a result, according to the latest report from the European Centre for Disease Control.

SWINE flu could claim nearly 2,700 lives here if worst-case predictions for the spread of the disease come true, Europe’s top disease detectives have calculated.

THE health challenge posed by swine flu was “unquantifiable” EU health ministers were warned as Europe’s first human-to-human case was confirmed.

UP TO a third of the 50,000 deaths a year in Europe caused by superbugs could be prevented, according to the European Centre for Disease Control.

DIABETES is set to cost the country €1 billion a year by the end of the decade, EU experts heard in Dublin yesterday.