Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that tourists should be told “don’t come this season” and that anyone arriving in the country should face mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The island of Ireland cannot be left exposed and it was not enough to accept “on a wing and prayer” that people were self-quarantining, she told RTÉ Radio 1.
Ms McDonald said that experts need to come up with alternatives and she accepted that tests produced false negatives. “I was that person myself,” she said.
Relying on a paper trail and making phone calls to verify where the person was, was not enough. Ms McDonald said she was in favour of every precaution necessary being taken to “protect our island.”
Community transmission now appeared to be under control and the issue was the virus being brought into the country, she said. All the necessary checks at ports and airports should be taken to keep the island totally safe.
For epidemiological purposes the island of Ireland was a single unit, she said.
Ms McDonald said the UK should be considered a ‘red’ list because it continues to have problems with the virus.
“It has to be on the red list. This is not a political decision, it is an issue of biology and health.”
