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GREENLAND

Greenland makes Covid-19 vaccination mandatory on public transport

Only people who have received at least the first dose of a coronavirus vaccination will be permitted to use public transport in Greenland from midnight on Monday.

Published: 19 July 2021 16:44 CEST
Greenland makes Covid-19 vaccination mandatory on public transport
A Covid-19 test centre in Greenland's capital Nuuk earlier this year. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

Greenland’s prime minister Múte B. Egede confirmed the decision on Monday afternoon according to local media Sermitsiaq.AG.

The autonomous territory currently has 29 confirmed active cases of Covid-19, the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic.

“We must all take shared responsibility and show great caution since we do not yet know whether it is the Delta variant, which spreads a lot faster than the earlier Covid-19 variants,” Egede said at a briefing on Monday.

Passengers travelling to their home towns will be exempt from the vaccination requirement, however.

The new rule is initially in place until the end of July.

Although vaccination will now be required on public transport in Greenland, passengers will not be asked to show a vaccine passport or other form of documentation. That is because authorities say they trust the public to follow the rule.

In addition to public transport, unvaccinated people will not be allowed to use cafes, restaurants or sports facilities under the new restriction. Taxis are exempted from the rule.

Sermitsiaq.AG reports that 18,915 of Greenland’s population of around 56,000 are fully vaccinated, while 32,724 have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

A public assembly limit of 20 people will meanwhile remain in place in Greenland until the end of July.

READ ALSO: US no longer wants to buy Greenland, Secretary of State confirms

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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