Ireland removes Italy, Austria from hotel quarantine list

FILE PHOTO: A passenger covers her face after getting off a designated quarantine bus at Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel, as Ireland introduces hotel quarantine programme for 'high-risk' countries' travellers, in Dublin, Ireland March 26, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland removed Italy and Austria from its list of countries where arrivals are subject to mandatory hotel quarantine but kept the measures in place for three other European Union member states despite misgivings from the EU executive.

Ireland has some of the toughest travel restrictions in the Europe and is the only one the EU's 27 countries that forces arrivals from certain countries to pay almost 2,000 euros each to quarantine for up to 14 days in a secure hotel.