Omicron variant and travel rules, what happens in Italy and the EU

Coronavirus infections increase and the Omicron variant is advancing in Europe. Italy decides new rules on travel with a squeeze on arrivals also from EU countries which today ends up in the spotlight of the European Union. At today’s European Council it is likely that there will also be talk of the coordination of travel measures: an EU diplomatic source expects Mario Draghi to illustrate to his colleagues the reasons that led Italy to introduce the obligation to test also for vaccinated travelers from other EU countries. Read also If the Commission stresses that the measure should have been notified 48 hours earlier, in a context in which decisions often have to be taken very quickly, due to the information available, the Italian move is widely understood by other States. A community source underlines that “it is legitimate for a country to defend its own population” from the increase in infections, while an EU diplomatic source notes that at EU level efforts are being made to coordinate as much as possible, but national measures are always possible. Commission vice-president Vera Jourova explained on Tuesday that the regulation that established the Green Pass, or Covid EU digital certificate, provides for ‘backdoors’ wanted by States specifically to deal with emergency situations, as is precisely the one determined by the spread of the variant Omicron. In addition, Italy is not the first European country to introduce the obligation to test for EU vaccinated people: before us, Ireland and Portugal introduced it, without anyone protesting. Prime Minister Draghi is clear on the issue: “There is the spread of the Omicron variant which sees us in a favorable situation”, the incidence “is less than 0.2%. In other EU countries it is very widespread, for example in Denmark or in the United Kingdom, where it is widespread, so the same practice has been decided for those arriving in Italy today from the United Kingdom: a tampon is enough to enter, I don’t think there is much to think about … “. Greece has also decided that all travelers arriving in the country, whether vaccinated or not, will have to present a molecular swab with a negative result from next Sunday. Under the new provisions, people in transit in Greece for less than 48 hours will be exempted from the test. To be valid, the negative swab must be carried out within 48 hours prior to the trip. While in France the government plans to impose a molecular test for passengers arriving from the UK, the fourth wave advances. There was a record increase in cases in Britain yesterday, 78,610 in 24 hours, the highest increase since the start of the pandemic. In Italy, 23,195 infections and 129 deaths were recorded. Cases of the Omicron variant are still limited in our country. The “increasing” numbers of Sars-CoV-2 positive cases, Covid-19 patients, hospitalizations and deaths in Europe are due “almost exclusively” to Delta variant, while “on the horizon” is the Omicron variant, which is “even more contagious”, causing a number of cases that “doubles every two or three days”, says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. By “mid-January” the variant identified for the first time in South Africa will be “dominant” in the Old Continent. The community transmission of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 “is already underway in the countries of the EU / European Economic Area. In the next 2 months, a further rapid increase in cases of this new mutant is expected” is the analysis contained in one of the key points of the latest update to rapid risk assessment, released by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control Ecdc. And, although Delta is currently still the most widespread variant, “based on predictive models and based on growth advantage and level of immune escape, Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant in the EU / See within the first 2. months of 2022 “. “It is believed – ECDC also reports – that the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 may cause further hospitalizations and deaths, in addition to those already foreseen by the previous forecasts which consider only the Delta”. The presence of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 has been confirmed so far in 76 countries, according to data from the latest weekly bulletin of the World Health Organization. Based on current limited evidence, the UN health agency confirms, the new variant appears to have a growth advantage over Delta. “It is spreading faster than the Delta in both South Africa, where Delta circulation was low, but it appears to be spreading faster even in countries where Delta incidence is high, such as the UK,” WHO notes.