Italy announced on Wednesday that it has made testing for Covid-19 mandatory for travelers from China, a country experiencing a strong surge in cases. The Region of Lombardy had already introduced this obligation.
This measure was eventually extended to the entire country. The Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, has declared mandatory covid-19 testing and sequencing of the virus “for all passengers from China and those in transit in Italy”.
“The measure is essential to monitor and identify any variants of the virus to protect the Italian population,” justified the official, quoted by the newspaper La Repubblica.
Earlier, the minister stated that he was “in contact (…) with the competent authorities of other Member States of the European Union (EU) to develop common strategies”.
“Surveillance and prevention, through sequencing, are essential to identify in a timely manner possible new variants of concern that are not circulating in Italy at this stage,” the Italian Ministry of Health initially referred to.
Before the announcement of Orazio Schillaci, the region of Lombardy, where the international airport of Malpensa, in Milan, is located, had already decided to “submit all travelers and crew members from China to molecular testing (…)”, as announced by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its website especially for travelers.
The person responsible for Health in the Lombardy region, Guido Bertolaso, indicated that passengers on two flights in Malpensa were tested on December 26. “On the first flight, 35 of the 92 passengers (38%) were positive. On the second flight, 62 of the 120 passengers (52%) were positive,” said Bertolaso.
In Italy, health is an area of competence of the regional authorities, and each of them can therefore take different measures.
In 2020, Lombardy was the first region in Europe to go into quarantine to contain the pandemic of the new coronavirus responsible for covid-19 and is still living with the trauma of the shock of the first wave of cases, which are very deadly used to be.
“This provision shall take effect immediately and until January 30, 2023, unless the epidemiological situation is reassessed,” reads the notice published on the State Department’s website.
France also announced this Wednesday that it is “ready” to “study all useful measures” and that it is “very closely following the evolution of the situation in China”, despite an explosion in covid-19 cases.
“The Ministry of Health and Prevention is closely following developments in China” and “ready to study all useful measures that can be implemented, together with European partners and within the legal framework that exists today,” a statement said. to Agence France Presse (AFP).
France no longer requires any additional formality related to covid-19 to enter the country, but the text that lifted the restrictions stipulates that the government can impose the presentation of a negative test to persons over 12 years old until January 31 “in case a new variant emerges and circulates that may pose a serious threat to health”.
Japan also announced today that it will reinstate mandatory testing for travelers from mainland China from Friday.
The island of Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory, has also announced it will carry out checks on travelers arriving from mainland China.
The abrupt end of China’s “zero covid” policy is raising concern in several countries, including the United States, which are considering entry restrictions for Chinese travelers as China is currently facing the largest wave of infections in the world, amplified by the rise of new variants.
The Chinese authorities ended most measures against Covid-19 on December 1 without notice.
The lack of transparency about the number of infections, which the authorities no longer publish daily and are difficult to count because the tests are no longer mandatory, is also worrying.
The World Health Organization (WHO) last week expressed “serious concern” over the surge in new COVID-19 cases in China, asking Beijing for more transparency to deal with future pandemics.
Covid-19 is an infectious respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which was discovered in China at the end of 2019 and has spread rapidly around the world.
News updated at 19:55
Source: DN
