The Tánaiste has said a Zero COVID strategy can’t be ruled out, even though he thinks it’s unworkable.
It comes as Leo Varadkar has told the Fine Gael parliamentary party that the country may move to Level Four restrictions after March 5th.
Opposition parties have pushed for mandatory quarantine for all people arriving into Ireland after that and a zero-COVID approach.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says they won’t be ruling out any proposals for fighting the virus;
“We may well end up in the same place. There are lots of things we have done in the past year to fight this pandemic that I never thought we would do. So I, and the government, will always keep an eye on these things.”
The Finance Minister has also weighed in, claiming that even a low level of international travel poses a risk to the country’s efforts to tackle the virus.
It comes after it’s emerged that almost half of people arriving into Dublin Airport earlier this week were coming back from holidays.
From today, visa free travel from 12 countries – including South Africa and nations in South America – has been suspended to stop new variants arriving here.
Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe says it’s not the time to be going on holiday;
“We cannot engage in non-essential travel outside of our country. Essential travel means work that is absolutely necessary either for our country or for the maintenance of employment, or really important compassionate trips. We can’t be leaving our country at a time when we’re beating this disease. Going on holidays is not essential travel.”
