DUBLIN, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Ireland plans to end a ban on
travel to the country from Britain on Jan. 6 and replace it with
stricter COVID-19 testing measures as it seeks to stop the
spread of a highly infectious new variant of the virus, Foreign
Minister Simon Coveney was quoted as saying on Friday.
Ireland banned passenger flights and ferries on Dec. 21.
Some 30,000 people had travelled to Ireland from Britain in the
previous two weeks, during which time the new variant was
spreading rapidly in parts of Britain.
Passengers flying on non-essential business from Britain
after Jan. 6 will need to produce a negative test taken three
days before their flight, Coveney told the Irish Independent
newspaper.
They will also be asked to restrict their movements for at
least five days from their arrival and can move freely only if
they then receive a second negative test.
"We're planning to end the travel ban with the UK on January
6 but replace it with a more restrictive set of travel
regulations between Britain and Ireland," he said.
"We are anxious to move away from a travel ban, which we
don't think is realistic and there does need to be travel
facilitated between Britain and Ireland for lots of reasons."
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly again in Ireland and health
officials have said that it has found seven cases of the new
variant from 77 positive tests that subsequently underwent
genomic sequencing.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin
Editing by Frances Kerry)