381 new Covid cases confirmed as six more countries removed from hotel quarantine list 

The Government has advised against all non-essential international travel, however anyone entering Ireland from specific states must enter hotel quarantine.

The number of patients with Covid-19 in ICU has risen by four to 42 with a total of 110 in hospital.

The Department of Health has also confirmed there have been 381 new cases of Covid-19.

Six more countries have been removed from the mandatory hotel quarantine list, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced.

Andorra, Georgia, Kuwait, Mongolia, Nigeria and Puerto Rico have all been taken off the list.

The Government has advised against all non-essential international travel, however, anyone entering Ireland from specific states must enter hotel quarantine.

All passengers arriving here must fill out a Covid-19 passenger locator form and provide a negative PCR test “no more than 72 hours before you arrive into Ireland, or have evidence that you are exempt from this legal requirement”.

Anyone who needs to use hotel quarantine must have it pre-booked in advance of travel.

A full list of designated States where people travelling from must observe hotel quarantine is available here.

B1617.2

Meanwhile, speaking last night, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said on Friday that the so-called Indian variant of Covid-19 was like a “dark cloud on the horizon”.

To date, 72 cases of this variant of concern — B1617.2 — have been identified, up from 59 earlier this week and 41 last week.

Dr Holohan yesterday expressed concern about the number of cases of the variant that had been detected in the State.

“In broad terms, you could characterise the virus here at the moment as, for the most part, the sky is blue but there is a black cloud on the horizon which is the Indian variant,” he said.

We are concerned genuinely about the reports we have received and the credibility we attach to them around the increased transmissibility associated with that particular variant.

He said this variant is "the most concerning one" since the emergence of the B117 variant, first detected in the UK, at the turn of the year.