DUBLIN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Irish tourism sector has suffered a loss of one billion euros (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, said a senior official here on Thursday.
Paul Kelly, CEO of Failte Ireland or Ireland's National Tourism Development Authority, told a special committee of the country's parliament that the tourism sector was hit first, hit hardest and will take the longest to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, local media RTE reported.
In a report submitted to the committee, he said the tourism sector has had a few months of no revenue and the pandemic has cost the sector one billion euros since late March when Ireland imposed a nationwide lockdown.
According to him, the 14-day self-quarantine requirement has virtually closed Ireland to all overseas visitors and that a way must be found to reopen for overseas tourism as soon as public health allows.
In another development, Stephen Donnelly, newly-appointed Irish minister for health, told RTE in a TV program that public health officials are concerned about the the risk posed by international travel to the country's efforts in containing the virus.
Donnelly said confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland from international travel jumped to 17 percent of the total in the last few weeks from just 2 percent for the last few months.
The Irish government has announced that starting from July 9, it will reopen the country to overseas tourists from low-risk nations without a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
A list of these low-risk countries is expected to be announced in the next few days and it will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis.
Statistics announced by the Irish Department of Health on Thursday night showed that there are now a total of 25,489 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland and 1,738 people in the country have died from the disease. Enditem
