16 New Countries Added To Ireland's Mandatory Hotel Quarantine List

The US, Canada, France and Italy are among 16 new countries added to Ireland's list.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly made the announcement last night after a special Cabinet meeting on public health. 

The measure will come into effect from 4am next Thursday.

Sinn Fein's Health Spokesperson David Cullinane says it was the right decision. 

"It's very important that we do everything possible to keep people safe, to keep any new variants and existing variants out of this space, and ensure that we have sufficient checks and controls at ports and airports. We're talking here about non-essential travel which shouldn't be happening in the first place. The very least we should do is to make sure that proper quarantine measures are in place."