Coronavirus: People returning to Ireland from Italy and Spain face restrictions

Anybody coming back from Italy and Spain will be given a leaflet at Irish airports.

Ireland has put in place another precautionary measure amid the coronavirus outbreak after the country closed its schools and cultural institutions and advised to cancel mass gatherings.

Anyone returning from Spain and Italy will be asked to avoid social contact and not to go to work for 14 days.

“As of today, people who come back to Ireland from those countries will be given information at the airport and that information will tell them to restrict their movements for the next two weeks,” Minister for Health Simon Harris said to RTÉ News on March 13.

He added they do not want people to be “self-isolated” but they ask them to “restrict their movements”.

Countries to be avoided

The Irish Government has said that it has no intention to close airports and ports.

Moreover, health workers are not carrying out temperature checks at Irish airports as it has been said it is not an appropriate control measure for Ireland at this time.

READ ALSO: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Covid-19: Schools and cultural institutions will close

The Department of Foreign Affairs, however, advised people to not travel to China, Iran and Italy. Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are the countries to be currently avoided as well. And Spain has now been added to the list.

“A significant number of cases of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) have been confirmed in Spain,” the Department informed.

Spain has reported more than 3,100 coronavirus cases and 84 deaths by the March 13 morning. The Department added Madrid, Vitoria and Labastida in the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Rioja region are the most affected areas.

Four villages on lockdown in Catalonia

The Catalan regional government has placed four municipalities in the vicinity of Barcelona under quarantine, namely Igualada, Vilanova del Camí, Santa Margarida de Montbui and Ódena. A total of 70,000 people is impacted by this step.

Spain is the second most coronavirus-affected country in Europe behind Italy.

In Ireland, there have been 70 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and one confirmed death.