Mandatory swabs for those arriving in Italy from China. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, after the signing of an ordinance. “I have ordered, by ordinance, mandatory Covid-19 antigenic swabs, and related sequencing of the virus, for all passengers coming from China and in transit through Italy”, says Schillaci.
“The measure – he explains – is essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus, in order to protect the Italian population”. In the evening, therefore, the information from the head of Health to the Council of Ministers: according to what an authoritative government source reports to time.news, for now the government will limit itself to subjecting travelers from China to rapid tests, but “we will ask our European partners to do the same“.
“We have made an ordinance to introduce the mandatory swabs for passengers arriving from China, this is because it is essential, in the case of a positive swab, to sequence it and see what variants are present. We are very calm and hope that these variants are already present on the national territory: this would be a very comforting figure”, at the moment however “there is no cause for concern”, the words of the minister at the end of the CDM. “This increase in cases in China – he continued – is due to the fact that, after a long lockdown, there was a sudden easing of the measures, moreover, the Chinese vaccines were evidently not very effective, so we think there is a big number of infections in China. The data from the Chinese authorities are not published today, so for greater safety we will be the first in Europe” to introduce the mandatory swabs for those arriving from China and to sequence the variants and “understand if they are already present in the territory national, such as Omicron, and on which vaccines give excellent coverage to avoid serious illness and hospitalizations. We sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Health to point out that we have taken this measure and that it would be very useful to have a connection at European level and similar initiatives throughout the European territory“.
“As you can understand – he continues – if there are direct flights arriving from China, the same number of passengers arrive via other European countries, so it is important to involve other European countries in this initiative”. Passengers arriving from China who test positive for Covid “will be placed in quarantinenow we organize ourselves with the Regions and work with them on this”, he added.
“Absolutely at this moment – continued the minister responding to reporters – there is no reason for concern, if there were to be any problems, obviously we will intervene promptly to guarantee public health”.
At Malpensa 50% positive on flight from Beijing. Fiumicino resumes tests
“Surveillance and prevention, through sequencing, are essential to promptly identify any new variants that may cause concern and which, at the moment, are not in circulation in Italy”, previously underlined a note from the Ministry of Health.
The minister, “already from the first news, is following the developments of the new Covid-19 wave in China with the utmost attention – the note detailed -. Since last Friday he has been discussing with the control room of the Higher Institute of Health ( Iss) for monitoring the progress of Covid-19 infections”. From Saturday 24 December to today, the minister “carefully followed the outcome of the swabs on passengers arriving at Malpensa from China and recommended the sequencing of all the variants that may emerge from the swabs”. Furthermore, the minister “has been in contact for days with the competent authorities of the other EU states to define shared strategies”, concludes the note.
UE – The European Commission remains “ready” to use the “emergency brake”, the coordinated reintroduction of travel restrictions, should it become necessary in light of the evolution of the health situation in China, even if for the moment the need is not seen . A spokeswoman for the EU executive explains this to time.news, after Beijing announced that from next January 8 it will resume issuing passports for tourist travel, something it has not done since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Commission notes that “the BF7 Omicron variant” of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, “prevalent in China, is already present in Europe and has failed to become dominant. However, we remain vigilant and will be ready to use the emergency brake, if necessary. Currently – he stresses – there are no longer any restrictions on travel in force both within and towards the European Union. In October, the Commission had proposed an update of the two Council recommendations on free movement within the EU and on travel to the EU to adapt to the improvement of the epidemiological situation”.
“The restrictions have been lifted – continues the spokeswoman – but an emergency brake has been maintained which could be activated if necessary to reimpose the restrictions in a coordinated way. These updates were agreed by member states on 7 December. It was agreed to return to a pre-pandemic approach to free movement and travel, without any measures related to Covid-19.If the epidemiological situation so requires, measures related to Covid-19 could be reintroduced in a coordinated way and following a person-based approach. But again, there are currently no such measures,” the spokeswoman concluded.