The new EU traffic light system for international travel will take effect here from midnight.
It means people coming from regions with an orange rating will be allowed to skip quarantine if they test negative three days before arrival.
Those from red regions must still complete their 14 days of isolation, but this can be waived following a negative test result taken five days after arrival.
The system is based on data published by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) every Friday.
Countries will be designated green, orange or red depending on three criteria.
These include the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period, the positivity rate of the COVID-19 tests carried out in the past week, and the number of COVID-19 tests carried out per 100,000 people.
An ECDC combined indicator map showing the 14-day notification rate, testing rate and test positivity across Europe as of November 5th.It comes as new limits have been introduced on people coming from Denmark, amid fears of mutation of COVID-19 in minks there.
Every arrival from there must complete two weeks of quarantine, with few exceptions.
Meanwhile, two drive-through COVID-19 testing centres are set to open at Cork and Shannon Airports on Thursday.
Irish healthcare company RocDoc is providing the service for the public who will get test results back within a few hours.
The firm is also planning to roll out another regional testing facility in the coming weeks.
Winter holidays
Travel expert Eoghan Corry says there has already been an update to slightly change the new EU traffic light system which could have a big impact on Irish holidaymakers.
He said: "It's a very big development, it separates Madeira from Portugal, it separates the Canary Islands, which is our main winter holiday destination, from mainland Spain.
"It also splits the Greek islands which is less significant.
"Until now, we have been following the system by country rather than by region and this is a big breakthrough as it's one part that's part of the EU traffic light system which we weren't sure we would align with."
