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 the local reports. In March, the Mediterranean nation emerged as the global epicentre of the malignant COVID-19 disease with one of the highest death tolls and confirmed cases in the world. Now, with a challenge to beckon tourists in order to rescue the travel industry, the country declared “unrestricted travel” and scraped the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

As per a media report, Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport resumed all domestic and international flights in the final phase of the coronavirus lockdown ease, allowing the families and loved ones to finally reunite. As a first European country to throw its borders wide open to visitors, while the pandemic still looms, Italy aims to boost its collapsed tourism industry. This further prompted other 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 the borders that allowed the entry to the citizens from the neighbouring countries, as per the reports. This comes as Switzerland opened its borders with Germany, France and Austria, while on the same date, Austria reopened its borders with Germany, Switzerland, the 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 other countries not to treat Italy "like a leper", further adding, that he would visit Germany, Slovenia and Greece to persuade the neighbours that Italy was now safe for the tourists to visit. Italy’s new guidelines now allow visitors from 26 other members of the European Union, Schengen Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, UK, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City, according to government’s statement.  

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