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COVID-19 RULES

Italy to end Covid ‘super green pass’ requirement from May 1st

The Italian government has approved a 'roadmap' towards the end of Covid restrictions in the country by early summer, Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed on Thursday evening.

Published: 17 March 2022 13:28 CET
Updated: 17 March 2022 19:17 CET
Italy to end Covid ‘super green pass’ requirement from May 1st
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi talks about a planned lifting of the country's Covid-19 state of emergency and rules imposed during the pandemic at a press conference in Rome on March 17th. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP

Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed on Thursday evening that his cabinet had signed off on the so-called decreto riapertura, or ‘reopening decree’, containing the timeline for easing the nation’s Covid restrictions

Under the decree, Italy’s health measures will be gradually eased between the start of April and mid-June, after the nationwide state of emergency ends on March 31st – two years and two months after it was first announced.

The green pass requirement is expected to end on May 1st, while Italy’s indoor mask mandate will end on April 30th, according to a draft text of the decree circulated on Thursday.

EXPLAINED: Why is Italy’s coronavirus infection rate rising again?

However, while Draghi confirmed at a press conference on Thursday evening that the decree had been approved, he did not go into details about what it contained.

The government approved “important measures that eliminate almost all the restrictions that have limited our behaviour,” Draghi said.

‘The government’s goal is to return to normality, the recovery of sociality, to reopen the economy and limit distance learning,” he continued. “This is now a state we have reached.”

Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Health Minister Roberto Speranza confirmed at the press conference that Italy’s four-coloured ‘zone’ system of restrictions will no longer be used, and said unvaccinated employees aged over 50 would no longer be suspended from work without pay. 

“It will be enough for them to have the basic green pass until April 30th”, he said, referring to the health certificate which can be issued based on proof of a negative test result as well as vaccination against or recovery from Covid-19.

Healthcare workers will remain subject to the vaccine mandate until December 31st, Speranza said.

He also confirmed that, as previously announced, the government is not planning to offer fourth vaccine doses to the entire population.

However, no further details were given about the contents of the new decree at the press conference, and the final text is yet to be published.

According to the draft, the requirement to show a ‘super’ or reinforced green pass in order to access public transport is expected to be lifted as soon as April 1st, when capacity restrictions are also set to be lifted at venues such as sports stadiums and nightclubs.

The government went ahead with the plans to lift the country’s health measures despite a rise in the coronavirus infection rate in Italy over the past two weeks.

However, Italy will relax the rules gradually over the coming months rather than all at once as in other countries such as neighbouring France and Germany.

At the moment, almost all venues and services in Italy, including hotels, restaurants and public transport, require a ‘super green pass’ for access, proving vaccination or recent recovery from Covid-19.

The decree is not expected to contain any updates to Italy’s travel rules, which were last updated at the beginning of March.

The Local will continue to publish further details about the new decree as they become available.

Find information about Italy’s Covid-19 rules on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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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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