Travellers from the European and Schengen Area countries, as well as those from the United Kingdom and Israel, will be permitted to visit Italy, quarantine-free, from May 16, if they have been fully vaccinated against the Coronavirus, Italian Health Ministry has announced.
At present, people reaching Italy from the areas mentioned above are subject to five days of mandatory testing and quarantine requirements upon their arrival, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
However, the Ministry has clarified that despite abolishing self-isolation requirements, a negative swab pre-travel will still be needed, emphasizing that current restrictions imposed for people travelling from Brazil will continue to be kept in place due to the current COVID-19 situation on the latter.
Italy plans to attract more international visitors this summer in order to prevent further financial loss and help the travel and tourism sector get out of the crisis provoked by the pandemic.
In this regard, Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, has said that passengers from the United States, Canada and Japan could soon visit Italy quarantine-free if they have been fully vaccinated against the Coronavirus.
“Our goal is to reopen Italy for tourism, domestic and international,” Draghi pointed out in this regard.
“The pandemic has had vast economic effects on the tourism industry, and we’re working to get it going again as soon as possible, and in maximum safety,” the Prime Minister has stressed.
He has indicated that the country could ease some of its strict rules imposed to halt the further spread of the Coronavirus, so more persons from overseas could visit the country.
Draghi also promised to expand “Covid-tested” flights, currently operated between New York or Atlanta in the United States to Milan or Rome, which allow passengers to skip self-isolation requirements, if they test negative for the COVID-19 before and on arrival.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio last weekend suggested that travellers from the United States would be permitted to return from June, the same month that the EU has pledged to open its doors to vaccinated or tested passengers from outside the bloc.
From June 11 to June 13, leaders of the G7 countries – France, Canada, Italy, Germany, the UK, the US, Japan and the EU – will attend a meeting in which travel will also be on the agenda in order to reach a joint agreement in this regard.
Italy is the eighth-most affected country from the COVID-19, with over 4,139,160 infection cases and 123,745 deaths, since the beginning of the pandemic.
Still, the country’s authorities seek innovative ways to restore the tourism industry, the economy of which is deeply dependent on this sector.
At present, travellers from countries that recently have reported low infection rates of the COVID-19 infection, such as Australia, Rwanda, Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea, or Thailand, are allowed to enter Italy, but they are subject to ten days mandatory quarantine.
Meanwhile, passengers from the US, Canada, Japan or any other country outside the EU are only allowed to enter Italy for essential reasons, but not for tourism.
