Italy imposes quarantine on British visitors as Delta variant cases rise in the UK

Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced these new measures on Friday amidst growing concerns over the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus across the UK.

He also disclosed in a Facebook post that Italy would, however, be lifting curbs imposed on travellers from the United States, Japan, Canada and other EU countries provided they possess a vaccine green card or have recently tested negative for the virus.

These new measures will come into effect on Monday 21 June.

The ban on people traveling from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka will, however, remain in place.

This move by the Italian government is similar to those taken by France, Austria and Germany regarding travel from the United Kingdom.

Delta variant on the rise

These measures are coming at a time when the highly contagious Delta variant—first recorded in India—accounts for 99% of COVID cases in the UK, according to data from Public Health England.

The PHE’s data also shows that at least 33,630 cases of the variant were recorded in the last seven days, marking a 79% increase in weekly reported COVID cases.

Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency, Jenny Harries says:

Cases are rising rapidly across the country and the Delta variant is now dominantIt is encouraging to see that hospitalisations and deaths are not rising at the same rate but we will continue to monitor it closely.

On Friday, COVID-19 vaccinations were opened up to all people over 18 in England, a move which would help the government meet its target of giving every willing adult a first shot by the end of July.