France is still reflecting on “suitable measures” when Italy imposes compulsory tests, measures recommended by epidemiologists to identify the emergence of new variants.
by Stéphane Mandard, Marjorie Cessac, Matthieu Goar, Cédric Vallet (Brussels, Correspondence) and Olivier Bonnel (Rome, Correspondence)
“Chinese friends, France welcomes you with open arms!”: It is by a warm tweet that the French Embassy in China praised, Wednesday, December 28, the confirmation by Beijing of the lifting of the last vestige of His “zero covid” policy. From January 8, the forties will no longer be imposed on travelers entering the country; In other words, the Chinese will be able to start traveling massively. A welcome message that contrasts with the alerts emanating from Japan, the United States or Italy, on the defensive in the face of the explosion of COVID-19 cases in China. If the Chinese authorities, completely overwhelmed, have stopped communicating official data, the astronomical figure of 37 million contaminations per day is mentioned.
After Japan, the United States and Italy announced on Wednesday that it would impose COVVI-19 screening tests on all travelers from China. For the past few days, Italy has the impression of reliving a bad film. On December 26, the 120 passengers of a Beijing-Milan flight lent themselves to anti-Cavid tests made available by the Lombardy region: more than half proved to be positive. Still traumatized by the violence of the pandemic, Lombardy, epicenter of contagions in Europe after the appearance in February 2020 of the first cases of COVID-19 on the old continent, quickly took the lead. Milan-Malpensa Airport immediately imposed tests for any traveler from China.
An obligation extended Wednesday to the whole territory for anyone traveling from Chinese territory or in transit on Italian soil. An “essential measure” to “protect the Italian population”, commented the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci. Positive persons will have to carry out a quarantine period, the terms of which remain to be defined.
Evaluation of the situation at European level
The Italian authorities said that strengthening health measures should also be done at European level. Several tourists from China set foot on Italian soil after having stopped in Paris, Frankfurt or Helsinki. As almost three years ago, Rome considers too wait -and -see Europe. “Italy cannot be the only one to carry out anti-Cavid controls at airports on passengers from China,” said Matteo Salvini, vice-president of the Infrastructure and Transport Council, which is is maintained Wednesday afternoon with the European Transport Commissioner Adina Valean. Orazio Schillaci wrote to the European Health Commissioner, Stella Kiriakidou, to ask her for coordinated action at the Schengen space country.
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