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  • Travellers from South America must self-isolate and get tested

    Date published: 17 January 2021

    Travellers who have arrived from or transited through these South American countries* in the last 14 days must self-isolate for 10 days when they arrive in Northern Ireland, their household must also isolate for 10 days.

    Travellers who have returned from South America should also arrange to have a test whether or not they have symptoms, they should contact their GP or Out-of-Hours service to arrange testing.

    *Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Panama, Portugal, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

    A Departmental spokesperson said: “This precautionary measure is in response to the emergence of Covid-19 variants in these countries. Work is ongoing to understand the effect of the variants on disease characteristics such as transmissibility.”

    Notes to editors:

    1. For media enquiries please contact the DoH Press Office by email pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk.
    2. Follow us on twitter @healthdpt.
    3. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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