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ITALY will relax COVID-19-related travel restrictions for all visitors from European Union (EU) countries from February 1, 2022, the health ministry said Wednesday (1/26).
Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza has signed a warrant, which stipulates that people arriving from EU countries are only required to have a “green card”, the ministry said in a statement.
The card, known as the Green Pass, is a document that shows the condition of a person’s immunity to COVID-19 through a vaccination record, information about having been infected, or a negative COVID-19 test result.
On December 14, Italy stipulated that all visitors from the EU must undergo a COVID-19 test before they depart for the country. The regulation was set amid concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant of the corona virus.
According to the Ministry of Health, the Speranza order also means updating the provisions for its citizens to freely travel to a number of tourist destinations outside Europe.
Based on that provision, six countries were added to the list of tourist destinations, namely Cuba, Singapore, Turkey, Thailand (limited to the island of Phuket), Oman, and French Polynesia.
Earlier in September 2021, Italy made a list of what it called a COVID-19-free tourist travel corridor. The list includes the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Egypt (but only for Sharm El Sheikh and Marsa Alam), the Dominican Republic, and Aruba. Italy on Wednesday (1/26) reported 167,206 COVID-19-related cases.
The number was a decrease compared to 186,740 people a day earlier, the health ministry said. The number of deaths has also decreased, from 468 to 426 on Wednesday (1/26). [antaranews/photo special]
