COVID-19: Italy reopens borders to Europe, scraps mandatory 14-day quarantine rule

Italy reopened its borders to visitors from European nations on June 3 to revive tourism after months of movement ban due to coronavirus, as per local reports. In March,  Mediterranean nation emerged as global epicentre of malignant COVID-19 disease with one of highest death tolls and confirmed cases in world. w, with a challenge to beckon tourists in order to rescue travel industry, country declared “unrestricted travel” and scraped 14-day mandatory quarantine.

As per a media report, Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport resumed all domestic and international flights in final phase of  coronavirus lockdown ease, allowing families and loved ones to finally reunite. As a first European country to throw its borders wide open to visitors, while pandemic still looms, Italy aims to boost its collapsed tourism industry. This furr prompted or European nations such as Greece to “accelerate efforts” to reinstate its tourism. According to reports, Greece restarted regular ferry services, and all cafes and restaurants were back to operation in Europe’s race of reviving tourism.  

Major cities, such as Milan, Rome and Naples unsealed borders that allowed entry to citizens from neighbouring countries, as per reports. This comes as Switzerland opened its borders with Germany, France and Austria, while on same date, Austria reopened its borders with Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, except for Italy. Austria’s health minister Beate Hartinger-Klein called Italy “a hotspot” that prompted Italian authorities to mend its border tourism once again.  

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Don't treat Italy "like a leper"

In a press conference earlier, Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio warned or countries t to treat Italy "like a leper", furr adding, that he would visit Germany, Slovenia and Greece to persuade  neighbours that Italy was w safe for tourists to visit. Italy’s new guidelines w allow visitors from 26 or members of European Union, Schengen Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein, rway and Switzerland, UK, Andorra, Monaco, San Mari and Vatican City, according to government’s statement.  

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