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FEATURE

Travel update: Denmark makes Austria yellow, more of Italy now green

Denmark will change the colour classification of a number of regions in Europe in the latest weekly update to its Covid-19 travel guidelines.

Published: 10 September 2021 16:44 CEST
Travel update: Denmark makes Austria yellow, more of Italy now green
Denmark issues weekly updates to its Covid-19 travel restrictions based on latest infection data. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The new guidelines, confirmed by the Foreign Ministry on Friday, come into effect at 4pm on Saturday.

Austria will become completely yellow once the update comes into force. Two Austrian regions, Burgenland and Kärnten, were previously green, but these now turn yellow along with the remainder of the country.

Like Austria, Croatia will now be yellow, entirely yellow, with its only green region, Sjeverna Hravatska, changing status on Saturday.

The main difference between travelling to Denmark from a yellow country is that Danish residents who are not vaccinated or immune through previous infection (and must therefore take a Covid-19 test before travel) are required to get a test after entry.

Non-Danish citizens or residents are required to show a negative coronavirus test at border control.

Those arriving by air can get a rapid antigen test for free at the airport between the arrival gate and border control.

The region of Lazio (which includes Rome)  in Italy goes in the other direction, from yellow to green, on Saturday. Italy is yellow nationally in the ministry guidelines, but several regions are now green. These are Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Abruzzo, Molise and Trento, with Lazio now to be added.

Fiuli-Venezia-Giulia is the only Italian region to switch from green to yellow.

The Azores in Portugal also change to green on Saturday.

Countries and regions which are classified as green are not subject to any Danish entry restrictions.

Outside of the EU, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Japan and Serbia change status to orange on Saturday.

Denmark cautions against non-essential trips to orange countries.

Countries can also be “hatched orange”, which means travel to those countries is advised against because of the restrictions imposed by those countries on travel from Denmark.

Fully vaccinated travellers from orange countries are not required to take a Covid-19 test before or after entry to Denmark and do not need to isolate.

Unvaccinated people from orange countries who have conferred immunity due to previous infection with Covid-19 not required to test or isolate but, unlike vaccinated people, must provide a worthy purpose for travelling to Denmark (this does not include tourism). Worthy purpose requirements do not apply to Danish nationals or people resident in Denmark.

People who are travelling from orange countries based on a negative test (and are therefore neither vaccinated nor have been previously infected with Covid-19) are required to isolate after entering Denmark. They must also provide a worthy purpose for travel (see above). As when arriving from yellow countries, non-vaccinated people in this category must take a Covid-19 test before and after travel to Denmark.

Detailed information about the rules for each colour code can be found here and on worthy purposes can be found here.

Last week saw changes to the guidelines affect Sweden and the United States among other countries.

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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.”

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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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