Ireland is to remain exempt from stricter UK travel rules

Ireland is to remain exempt from stricter UK travel rules announced on Friday evening by prime minister Boris Johnson. Up to Friday, travellers to the UK from Ireland and certain other countries were exempt from automatic quarantine requirements under the “travel corridor” system. On Friday, Mr Johnson announced the system is being scrapped in light of increasing Covid-19 infection rates and a new variants of the virus being discovered in Brazil. The affected countries are mainly former British colonies and countries with low infection rates such as New Zealand. From Monday anyone travelling to the UK from these countries will have to self-isolate for ten days. This can be shortened to five days if they receive a negative Covid-19 test on arrival. Ireland will remain exempt from these restrictions, meaning people can still travel to Northern Ireland and the mainland UK without having to quarantine. However Irish travellers must still abide by local restrictions at their destination. Certain professions, such as lorry drivers, are also exempt from the quarantine rules. “It’s precisely because we have the hope of that vaccine and the risk of new strains coming from overseas that we must take additional steps now to stop those strains from entering the country,” Mr Johnson said at a press conference on Friday. “Yesterday we announced that we’re banning flights from South America and Portugal and to protect us against the risk from as-yet-unidentified strains we will also temporarily close all travel corridors from 4am on Monday. “Following conversations with the devolved administrations we will act together so this applies across the whole of the UK.” Also from Monday, travellers arriving in the UK will have to produce a negative test before leaving their point of departure. This will also not apply to people travelling from Ireland. Those in breach of the new rule may be fined up to £500.