The Government has added 18 states to the mandatory quarantine list for travellers coming into Ireland.
This means anyone coming from these countries must complete a mandatory 14-day period of self-quarantine.
There are now 20 states on this list, including previously announced Brazil and South Africa.
The only European state on the list is Austria.
The full list of so-called 'category 2' states is:
- Angola
- Austria
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Burundi
- Cape Verde
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Eswatini
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Republic of South Africa
- Rwanda
- Seychelles
- Tanzania
- United Arab Emirates
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
'Category 2' means "significant public health risks" are posed by the arrival of people from these states.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly added the states to the list of 'high-risk' countries.
He can designate these on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan.
Minister Donnelly recently signed regulations that introduced a system of mandatory quarantine for all arrivals into the State.
The regulations also extended the mandatory requirement for all arriving passengers to have a negative PCR test, and it made it an offence not to have evidence of this test.
While those who travel into Ireland via Northern Ireland are also be required to have a not-detected PCR test result, and to observe the statutory quarantine regime.
The regulations also gave effect to the recent Government decision to implement mandatory quarantine at home.
'Too weak'
However these have previously been criticised as being too loose.
Professor Sam McConkey has praised the initiative, but said it came too late.
"My take is that it's a step in the right direction but... this is a bit too weak.
"I think we should have done this last February or March of 2020, and that would probably have limited the pain that we had".
He suggested inspections, offering in-house PCR testing, would be more helpful than Gardaí calling to people's homes.
"Offering people in-house PCR testing on day five, seven, ten - someone could come to the house and perhaps offer a test.
"That's partly for support because it's difficult to self-isolate, but also it gives useful information about whether those people are positive.
"If they are, then the people living in the house and the people immediately around them should be swabbed as well".
Prof McConkey suggested the system, as it stands, is "an invitation to leakiness".
"This law as it's framed, in my view, is intrinsically leaky - we're not leaky by some dint of our character or by our personality, we're leaky because we have laws like this that allow leakiness".
