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Covid-19: Rome to test coach passengers arriving from abroad amid fear of imported cases

People travelling into Rome by bus from abroad will soon be tested for Covid-19 upon arrival, local authorities have said.

Published: 27 July 2020 11:21 CEST
Covid-19: Rome to test coach passengers arriving from abroad amid fear of imported cases
Photo: AFP

Rome's Lazio region is set to introduce compulsory coronavirus testing for all travellers arriving by coach into Rome from “at risk” countries.

Announcing the move on Monday, Lazio Region president Nicola Zingaretti wrote on Twitter that the priority is to “defend” Rome and the Lazio region, as fears run high over possible imported cases from some countries within the EU.
 
 
Although officials have not yet clarified which travellers will need to be tested, the measure is believed to be aimed primarily at workers arriving in Italy from Bulgaria and Romania.
 
Italy on Friday imposed quarantine on anyone travelling to Italy from Bulgaria or Romania amid concerns that the many workers returning to Italy from those countries are potentially an infection risk.
 
 
After a slight rise in new confirmed cases last week, Italian authorities are pointing to the risk of cases being imported from abroad.
 
There are about one million Romanian nationals working in Italy, mainly in construction and home care, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.
 
The quarantine requirement applies to anyone, regardless of nationality, who enters Italy after being in Romania or Bulgaria within the previous 14 days.
 
 
There are no entry restrictions or quarantine requirements for travel into Italy for citizens of all other EU and Schengen zone countries, which for these purposes includes the UK.
 
Travellers from the following counries can also visit Italy without a quarantine requirement: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Montenegro, Morocco, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.
 
You can find full details of current travel restrictions in a separate article here. 
 
For more information, see the Italian Foreign Ministry's website (in English), as well as the latest advice from the government of any countries you're travelling to or from.

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ROME

Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy’s workplace deaths

A thousand coffins filled one of Rome's most famous squares on Tuesday as a trade union made a powerful statement on Italy's high number of deaths in accidents at work.

Published: 19 March 2024 17:01 CET
Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy's workplace deaths

“Every year, one thousand people go to work and don’t come home,” read a large sign displayed next to the 1,041 cardboard coffins set up around the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo.

“Zero is still too far away,” read another sign in the square as curious tourists took snapshots.

Last year, 1,041 people died in workplace accidents in Italy.

“We brought these coffins here to raise awareness, to remind everyone of the need to act, to not forget those who have lost their lives,” Pierpaolo Bombardini, general secretary of the UIL union behind the protest told AFPTV.

The protest was also intended “to ask the government and politicians to do something concrete to prevent these homicides” he added.

“Because these are homicides. When safety rules are violated, they are not accidents, but homicides.”

Cardboard coffins fill Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on March 19th in a protest by the Italian Labor Union (UIL) intended to draw public attention to the number of deaths at work in Italy. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make headlines in the Italian press, each time sparking a debate on risk prevention. Most recently a concrete structure collapsed on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence last month, killing five people working at the site.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced it as “another story… of people who go out to work, who simply go out to do their job, and do not come home”.

Bombardini called for an increase in the number of inspections and inspectors.

“Companies that violate safety standards must be closed down,” he added. According to Eurostat’s most recent statistics, from 2021, on EU-wide workplace fatalities, Italy had 3.17 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That was above the European average of 2.23 per 100,000 works but behind France at 4.47 and Austria at 3.44.

The European Union’s three worst-faring countries are Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, while work-related fatalities are lowest in the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

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