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16th Oct 2020

This could be the last week of Ireland using the Green List for travel around Europe

Rory Cashin

For the second week running, there are no countries on Ireland’s Green List.

Last week, it was announced that “As no EU / EEA countries were below the required 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases, there will be no countries on the Green List with effect from Monday, October 12.”

This week, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced that once again there were no EU / EEA countries below the required case numbers, and once again, there are no countries on the Green List this week.

However, as per this statement, it does seem like this could be Ireland’s last week on the Green List system:

“The new EU Recommendation on coordinating travel within the EU / EEA was adopted at the General Affairs Council in Brussels on 13 October. Implementation of this is for consideration by Government next week.”

As we previously reported (but has since been updated), the Green List is set to be abandoned in favour a new traffic-light system which is to be implemented across all of the EU.

The data will be provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC) and will assign Green, Orange, and Red lights to countries in the EU, dependant on how many people per 100,000 have tested positive for COVID over a 14-day period.

Countries with less than 4% positive tests over the previous week and fewer than 25 cases in 100,000 people will be Green coloured.

Countries with 4% or more positive tests over the previous week but fewer than 50 cases in 100,000 people OR less than 4% positive tests over the previous week but between 25 and 150 cases in 100,000 people will be Orange coloured.

Any country with 4% or more positive tests in the previous week and 50 or more cases in 100,000 people OR more than 150 cases per 100,000 people will be Red coloured.

At the time of writing, Ireland has a rate of 185 per 100,000, putting it into the Red zone, with the EU stating that “All non-essential overseas travel to and from Ireland should be avoided.”

The EU website has all the information needed on individual travel routes to and from different countries around Europe, and you can check that out right here.

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