The Chief Medical Adviser to the President of the United States Dr Anthony Fauci, has said “it’s safe” for Irish people to travel to America.
peaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme Dr Fauci said, that despite the high levels of Covid-19 in the US, Irish tourists can feel safe going there when the travel ban is lifted at the start of November.
“I think the combination of the fact that it will be in November, and there will be a requirement for vaccination and testing, that it will be safe for people in Ireland to travel to the United States.
“I believe our Irish friends and colleagues who come from Ireland to the United States with vaccination and testing can have a safe visit,” he said.
Dr Fauci, who is also the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is recommended that the children wear masks in crowded settings.
He said people will have to decide what level of risk they are willing to accept when travelling.
“Everything has to be put into the context of your ability to take a finite risk… There will be masking on the plane. Planes are generally felt, given the hepa filtering, to be reasonably safe.
“We still recommend, and we do it ourselves, that even if you are vaccinated and you are in congregated settings indoors, [to] still wear a mask.
Yesterday, 51,575 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the US, while the 7-day moving average of infections is over 120,000.
Dr Fauci said that despite the availability of vaccines in the country, some 70 million Americans who are eligible for vaccinations have not taken them.
He said the spread of misinformation and disinformation on social media is a major issue for public health in the US.
He said it is “up to us” to get people vaccinated and added that a serious effort is being made through vaccine mandates and information campaigns.
“We’ve got to step forward and get people vaccinated. We have the tools to prevent those numbers from going significantly higher,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Fauci said said it’s “highly likely” that booster vaccines could be administered to larges sections of the population outside of those who are older and vulnerable groups.
Meanwhile, in relation to the effort which has been made by frontline healthcare workers throughout the global emergency, Dr Fauci said they are all “heroes” who should be rewarded in whatever way individual states see fit.
“I’m of the firm belief that the healthcare workers, the frontline workers who are out there are truly the heroes and heroines of this outbreak. In Ireland, in the United States and throughout the world. Whatever an individual country can do to recognise that heroism would be thoroughly appropriate.”
It comes as yesterday the Irish Government brought an to the end mandatory hotel quarantine system here.
The Department of Health confirmed that the decision came following a recommendation from Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.
It said the system had been scaled down progressively over recent months in line with the Government’s revised approach to international travel, the success of Ireland’s vaccine roll-out and the evolution of the pandemic internationally.
The Department said travellers must still abide by the relevant travel regulations as set out in the ‘travel to the state regulations’, including the requirement to have a pre-travel PCR test unless in possession of proof of vaccination or recovery, and the requirements relating to home-based quarantine.
Travellers are also required to complete a passenger locator form prior to their arrival to Ireland.
Mandatory hotel quarantine was introduced in Ireland in March of this year to help stop the spread of Covid-19.
Since then 10,294 people stayed in the system, 593 residents tested positive for Covid-19 and eight hotels were used during its peak.
The latest revision of the quarantine system was completed in August with the minister removing Russia, South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Fiji, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe from the list.