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COVID-19 RULES

Covid-19: Italy’s unvaccinated teachers to return to class as rules ease

Teaching staff who refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed back to work in the new school year, Italy's education ministry has confirmed.

Published: 22 August 2022 17:20 CEST
Covid-19: Italy's unvaccinated teachers to return to class as rules ease
Masking requirements and vaccination rules will no longer be in place as Italy begins the new school year. File photo: Vincenzo PINTO / AFP

Teachers will be allowed to work in Italy’s schools regardless of their Covid-19 vaccination status from September, according to new guidelines issued by the education ministry.

The memo sent out to schools ahead of the new academic year confirmed that the Covid vaccination requirement for teachers expires on August 31st, along with many other health measures.

READ ALSO: What are Italy’s Covid rules for schools in September?

Since December 2021, teachers who refused the vaccine have been suspended without pay, along with police officers, emergency service workers and many other public sector staff in Italy.

On April 1st, unvaccinated teachers were permitted to return to school premises but were not allowed to teach classes.

The controversial rule is now set to be scrapped altogether in the 2022-23 academic year, meaning Italy’s ‘no vax’ teachers can go back to the classroom.

Masks will no longer be a requirement for students or teachers, and there will be no more distance learning – or ‘didattica a distanza‘ (DAD) in Italian – according to the guidelines.

READ ALSO: Italy approves fourth Covid vaccine doses for over-60s

Antonello Giannelli, president of Italy’s National Association of Principals, told news agency Adnkronos he was “not worried” about the number of unvaccinated teachers, which is “very low, just a few thousand”.

He said a bigger concern was “the millions of students, especially those aged between five and 15, who are not yet vaccinated”.

Italian virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco told newspaper La Repubblica on Monday that “we don’t yet have an exact manual” for managing the pandemic “but at this stage we have to live with it”. 

He said Italy’s anti-vax teachers were able to return to class “because of the decision of the great majority of Italians to get vaccinated”.

The education ministry said may bring back some rules if deemed necessary by health authorities, La Repubblica reported, including a requirement for teachers and students to wear FFP2 masks.

Italy’s schools restart in mid-September, with the exact dates varying by region.

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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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