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HEALTH

Coronavirus: British holidaymakers quarantined ‘for weeks’ in Sicily after testing positive

A Sicilian holiday turned into a nightmare for a group of London teenagers who tested positive for coronavirus and have now spent almost four weeks in quarantine - with no end in sight.

Coronavirus: British holidaymakers quarantined 'for weeks' in Sicily after testing positive
Tourists who test positive while on holiday in Italy may face weeks in isolation. Photo: AFP
Rachel Goldsmith, 18, was visiting Palermo with three friends in September when some of them began to experience symptoms of Covid-19.
 
What happened next is a cautionary tale for anyone trying to travel during a global pandemic.
 
 
After all tested positive, they were taken by ambulance to a hotel and put in separate rooms to self-isolate until they could show two consecutive negative tests.
 
One of them has since been allowed to gp home, but the other three have had further positive results, despite showing no symptoms since September 19th.
 
“It's been nearly four weeks, we're all feeling quite down and struggling to stay positive,” Rachel told AFP by telephone from the hotel.
 
She said her room has a bathroom but is dirty, she has to do her laundry in the sink, and some of the food brought up on trays has contained nuts – despite her telling them she had a nut allergy.
 
 
Rachel says she can hear a woman nearby crying, people have thrown things out of the window in apparent protest and late at night she hears shouting in the corridor “which can be scary”.
 
But the worst is the lack of communication about the tests that will be her ticket home.
 
“They tell us we're going to have a test and then it never comes. And then if we keep calling them, often they just hang up on us,” she said.
 
She has still not had confirmation of the result of her last test on October 5th.
 
“That's really hard mentally – we have no idea how long we're going to be here,” she said.
 
“We've heard stories of people being stuck in these kind of places for months and months, and that's a scary thought.”
 
For now, the girls' lives are on hold.
 
One has missed the start of her university course, while Rachel is trying to find a job but cannot tell prospective employers when she can start.
 
 
Italy was the first western country to be hit by coronavirus and has had touch rules in place to contain the spread – which are often far stricter than those implemented in the UK.
 
Rachel's father, Andrew Goldsmith, believes the quarantine measures in Italy go too far.
 
He says the tests the girls have had are unreliable and argues the requirement for two negative results is against World Health Organization
(WHO) advice.
 
The WHO says symptomatic patients should be released from confinement 10 days after symptoms began, plus at least three days without symptoms.
 
“So why keep doing this stupid negative test requirement?” Andrew Goldsmith told AFP.
 
He and the parents of the other girls have written to Italy's ambassador to the UK, Raffaele Trombetta, asking him to intervene in the case.
 
In an emailed response seen by AFP, an Italian embassy official said he was “sympathetic” to the girls' plight and had raised the issue with the foreign ministry.
 
But he added: “We cannot interfere in the health protocol which is in place to contain the contagion in such delicate times.”
 
Goldsmith said Britons should think twice about booking a holiday in Italy, saying they risk “an indeterminate sentence in solitary confinement”.
 
Italy is one of the few holiday destinations Britons have been allowed to visit recently without having to quarantine on their return home.
 
However, Italian authorities have just introduced a new requirement for Brits to show a negative test result on arrival amid concern about the UK's contagion rate.
 
A UK foreign ministry spokeswoman said consulate staff were supporting a small number of Britons in quarantine in Italy.
 
“The length of quarantine is based on local measures to control the spread of Covid-19,” she added.
 
You can follow all of The Local's latest updates on the coronavirus situation in Italy here.

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TOURISM

Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Inflation may now be falling but the price of a summer holiday in Italy has risen again - by up to 20 percent compared to last year.

Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Italian consumer rights groups said last year that the summer of 2023 would be remembered as “the most expensive ever” for travel. But 2024 has already smashed that record, according to the latest price surveys.

The rising cost of air fares, ferry tickets, hotels, restaurants and beach clubs add up to mean a holiday in Italy will be 15-20 percent more expensive this summer compared to last year, according to a survey conducted by the Assoutenti consumer research centre in June.

While price rises in recent years have been attributed to Covid and rising inflation, which is no longer thought to be a factor, this year Assoutenti said high demand was pushing up prices amid the post-pandemic tourism boom.

Prices in Italy were “out of control as a consequence of the resumption of tourism, after the stop imposed by Covid, and the record number of foreign visitors recorded in the last year,” the survey’s authors wrote, calling on the government to take measures to contain price increases.

READ ALSO: ltaly set for summer tourism boom as bookings increase again

They warned that more Italian families were likely to “give up the summer holidays this year, not being able to face an expense that increases from year to year,” and that those who do travel may book shorter trips to keep costs down.

Some 6.5 million Italians say they won’t be going on holiday this summer at all, with half citing economic difficulties, according to a separate survey commissioned by price comparison website Facile.it.

Meanwhile, there had been a nine percent increase this year in applications for personal loans for travel purposes, the survey found.

Flight prices

One of the biggest factors was the cost of air fares, as both domestic and international flights to and from Italy were found to be more expensive again this year.

While the cost of flights between European countries had fallen slightly following inflation-driven price hikes in 2023, Italy was bucking the trend.

Italy’s flight costs had risen instead, according to recent analysis in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with the average price of a summer flight between Italy and the rest of Europe up by seven percent and domestic flights by 21 percent.

READ ALSO: Why are flight prices higher in Italy than the rest of Europe this summer?

Industry sources suggest the price increase is again down to unprecedented demand, while consumer groups say the main culprit is a lack of competition on the Italian market.

Transport costs

There were price hikes too for those using other modes of transport, with the rising cost of fuel and motorway tolls in Italy named as another contributing factor in the Assoutenti survey.

Ferry tickets were also more expensive, it found, with the average increase this August at +6.3 percent compared to 2023.

Hotels and B&Bs

For a family of four, the Assoutenti survey found the most expensive place to stay in Italy this summer was Porto Cervo, Sardinia, where the average price of a week’s three-star accommodation in August came to 3,500 euros.

The cheapest options were found to be Bibione, outside Venice (872 euros) and Rapallo in Liguria (909).

READ ALSO: Tourist tax: How much is it increasing in Italy’s cities this year?

The cost of accommodation at coastal destinations had risen by 23 percent on average overall, a separate survey by consumer group Altroconsumo found.

Hotels in cities were found to be a less expensive option, with most Italian families heading for the beach or mountains to escape the heat.

Restaurants

Adding to the overall cost, prices also continued to rise this year at restaurants in holiday resorts and at beach clubs: Assoutenti recorded an average increase for the catering sector of +3.5 percent on 2023.

Beaches

Renting sunbeds and umbrellas at Italy’s beach clubs is seen as a necessity by many Italian families – and often by international visitors too, given the lack of free options in many areas.

This too was becoming more expensive in 2024, with the average daily rate for a slot at one of Italy’s private beach clubs up by more than five percent on last year. Prices had also risen by as much as 11 percent between 2022 and 2023.

Beachgoers can now expect to pay around €30-35 for two sun loungers and a beach umbrella for the day on average, though prices can rise as high as €90 in Salento and €120 in parts of Sardinia.

Both private and free-access beaches in Italy also increasingly require advance booking due to higher demand.

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