New EU traffic light system to co-ordinate international COVID-19 travel restrictions will come into force on 8 November

Junior Minister for Transport Hildegarde Naughton has announced that the European Union ‘Traffic Light’ system for conducting COVID-19 tests at airports will come into force in Ireland on 8 November.

It is a system for coordinating international COVID-19 travel restrictions across the continent. The cabinet this week agreed to align Ireland with an EU traffic light system.

A weekly map will be published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control using a three-stage color system to indicate the level of risk in each region. Levels are determined by a variety of epidemiological factors, including the 14-day occurrence and the level of positive tests per 100,000 population.

Passengers coming from red, orange or gray zones must require to quarantine or take a test for COVID-19 when arriving into a country. But those coming from the green zone will not face any measures. It will be monitored two-weekly basis by a high level technical team in the departments.

Junior Minister for Transport Hildegarde said those coming from the orange and red list countries should restrict their movements for 14 days. “For orange list countries, there will be an exemption from restricting movements if the person carries out a validated pre-departure test.”

“The requirement for red list countries remains as it is at the moment and people will have to restrict their movements,” she said. Hildegarde added that many countries across Europe are now on the red list, including Ireland. 

A high-level technical team will examine and evaluate the types of testing conducted by Ireland.