Eight cases of Indian Covid variant identified in Ireland as country to be added to hotel quarantine list

The Minister for Health has revealed that eight cases of the Covid-19 variant first identified in India have been found in Ireland.

The B1617 Covid-19 variant is currently listed as a “variant of note” for the Government, rather than a “variant of concern”, such as the P1 variant from Brazil.

However, Minister Stephen Donnelly did note that India has been added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list as a precautionary measure.

“The decision is in effect,” he said. “What we do is give people 72 hours for people to make arrangements and to get a little bit of warning. However, on India, by proxy for the majority of people coming in, it’s in place anyway.”

“Because people coming in from India anyway, Istanbul is a hub, the Emirates is a hub. And those countries have been on already, and simply going through those countries deems you category two.”

Regardless, those travelling from India to Ireland will have to quarantine in a hotel from Tuesday morning.

In regards to other variants of concerns, the Minister said that 27 cases of the Brazilian P1 variant have been identified in Ireland, with three of those in the last week.

In addition, 71 cases of the South African variant have been found across the country, with 16 of those being caught in the last week.

Speaking specifically about this variant, Mr Donnelly said that: “So one of the concerns that public health had was that when you begin to lose the ability to track exactly where one of the variants came from. So there are a number of those 71 that are now community transmission.”

“These are a concern. There’s no question about it.

“Ireland has now by a very long way the most robust protections in place in terms of international travel. And some people have asked why we’ve gone so far, why we’ve gone away ahead of the rest of the European Union. And this is why, it’s to protect people from these variants.”

In addition, the minister all listed some other variants of note which have been caught by the health system so far:

• Two California variants
• Two British variants which have mutated known as E383K
• Six New York variants
• 20 Nigerian variants

Irish Independent