Thousands of Irish people who attended the Cheltenham Festival will begin pouring in through the country's major airports this weekend, with no thermal screening currently in place.

While travel agents say a "small number" of people cancelled their packages to attend the Gloucestershire event in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, huge numbers still pushed ahead.

Returning punters are also under no obligation to self-isolate or restrict their movements because England is not an at risk zone, Health Minister Simon Harris said today.

However, it should be noted that individuals travelling from Italy and Spain who do not have symptoms of the coronavirus will be asked to restrict movement when they return here from today.

Irish Contingent

An estimated 15,000 people from these shores travel to Cheltenham every year and there was a noticeable Irish contingent in place this year out of a total expected attendance of 250,000 over the course of the week.

Although Dublin Airport has been extremely quiet, flights from Birmingham and Bristol, the two main hubs for the annual festival, have arrived back in full of passengers who have attended the racing blow-out.

Yesterday saw Aer Lingus cancelling its in-flight service from Birmingham due to health restrictions.

However, on arrival into the capital's airport, passengers who may have spent the week mingling at the large-scale racing gathering were free to exit as normal.

Advice

They were advised that anyone concerned about coronavirus should seek medical advice at the HSE stand set up in the arrivals lounge.

Two members of staff were present at a table surrounded by notices about Covid-19, but no one who had just exited yesterday's 8am flight from Birmingham approached them for advice before carrying on their journey.

At present, the warning level for the UK is set at 'normal precautions' and there is no instruction for travellers from there to stay indoors and self-isolate.

According to the HSE, while the Cheltenham Festival is deemed to be a large-scale gathering, the risk remains low and anyone affected in this area should be in containment phase in a hospital at this point.

The health authorities added that anyone who has come in contact with someone showing signs of Covid-19 should ring their GP immediately.

Irish officials say airport screening, temperature checks and travel bans are not appropriate measures at this time.

Dublin Airport says it is following the advice of the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) when it comes to the issue.

It believes screening at airports "does not work" and is not recommended by the WHO and those are the reasons why such measures are not being carried out.

A statement said it was continuing to follow all public health guidelines and protocols from both the HSE and the HPSC, which sets Ireland's policy with regards to dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Dublin Airport said it had been liaising with both bodies regularly on the issue.

Some countries, including the UAE and the Ukraine, have implemented designated gates to screen passengers arriving in from high-risk locations.

These include countries such as China, Italy, Lebanon, Spain and Syria.

In addition to thermal screening to detect a temperature spike, which may indicate the onset of symptoms related to coronavirus, passengers may also undergo nasal swabbing for final confirmation.