STORMONT'S health minister has been warned that travellers from the rest of the UK have "the greatest risk" of bringing coronavirus into Northern Ireland.
The advice comes from the executive's chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, according to BBC News NI.
Ministers will review the international travel regulations on Thursday.
The Department of Health declined to comment on the content of executive papers but health minister Robin Swann has said decisions around travel restrictions are a matter for the NI Executive, a department spokesperson said. He added that Swann wanted "to see it resolved" at Thursday's meeting.
The document says the advice is "based purely on risk to virus transmission and propagation of the epidemic".
Health measures like quarantine are set by each UK nation separately.
On Friday last week, the UK Government published a list of 73 countries and territories where English holidaymakers can visit without self-isolating on their return.
It includes popular short-haul destinations such as Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, as well as long-haul locations including Australia, Barbados, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Vietnam.
However, the policy only applies to England as the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales had not signed off on the plan before it was made public.
From Friday this week, passengers entering England will not have to quarantine, under what are known as "air bridges".
Northern Ireland's current stance is travellers arriving from outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland must self-isolate for 14 days.
But ministers are due to review this issue on Thursday, based on a document from Swann's department, which says the prevalence of the virus is "substantially greater" in the UK than in Northern Ireland.
"With regard to introducing the epidemic into Northern Ireland, travellers from the rest of the UK create by far the greatest risk, both in relative and absolute terms," it says.
It adds that travellers from any country ranked with a prevalence higher than the Republic of Ireland, using the Westminster Government's methodology, will have a "somewhat increased risk of infection", while travellers from some of the countries "would have at least twice the risk".
"Imposing restrictions on travellers from these countries would currently have much less benefit than imposing restrictions on travellers from the rest of the UK," it says.
The advice concludes that any approach adopted by Stormont would need to be "revisited regularly" as cases of the virus change quickly.
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