Austria to reopen its border with Italy from June 16 as country eases restrictions
Six days after allowing travellers from other neighbouring nations, Austria would now be reopening its borders to Italy starting next week, international media
- World News
- 2 min read
Six days after allowing travellers from other neighbouring nations, Austria would now be reopening its borders to Italy starting next week, international media reported. However, Italian travellers would still be obliged to stay 14 days in isolation amongst other restrictions before proceeding further. On the other hand, travellers from 20 other European nations would now be allowed to enter the country without quarantine.
Starting from June 16, Austria in a move to restore normalcy would lift controls on travel from more than two dozen nations including Croatia and Greece. This would mean that all travellers arriving from those countries would neither have to go through14-day quarantine nor show a negative trend. Austria which borders eight nations last week lifted borders restriction with all its neighbours except Italy citing coronavirus risks. In retaliation, Rome accused Vienna of adopting 'individualistic’ solution and damaging image with the European Union.
Sweden travellers to undergo isolation
However, along with Italy, controls on travel would continue on travellers from Sweden. Despite rising cases, Sweden did not impose a nationwide lockdown. Meanwhile, experts are now speculating Vienna to completely lift quarantine requirement for Italy. According to John Hopkins University, Austria has till now reported 17,005 positive cases and 673 deaths. Italy, meanwhile, has reported 235,561 cases and 34,043 deaths.
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Italy, on the flip side, 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.
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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.