Italy brings in Covid tests for air passengers arriving from China
Italy will test all air passengers arriving from China for coronavirus, as it become the first western country to impose restrictions after the abrupt end of Beijing’s zero-Covid containment policy prompted a surge in cases in the world’s second-largest economy.
Orazio Schillaci, Italy’s health minister, announced the controls on Wednesday, saying it was “essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population”.
Some Asian countries, including Japan and India, have also imposed new testing requirements for Chinese arrivals, in anticipation of a wave of visitors after president Xi Jinping’s government scrapped what was left of the zero-Covid regime that closed it off from the world for almost three years.
Under former prime minister Mario Draghi, Italy had strict vaccination rules and required people to show proof of vaccination in order to enter most public places and businesses. Yet such controls, including requirements to mask on public transport, have been gradually phased out.
Members of Italy’s rightwing government, led by Giorgia Meloni, were highly critical of the former government’s strict vaccination and masking policies, calling them curbs on individual freedoms.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi and Stefania Palma in Rome, Guy Chazan in Berlin and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Amy Kazmin
