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HEALTH

Have your say: Americans – will you travel to Italy if a vaccine passport is required?

After more than a year of being largely barred from Europe, Americans could be able to visit this summer using a "health pass". Will you be among them? Let us know your plans.

Published: 4 May 2021 14:17 CEST
Have your say: Americans - will you travel to Italy if a vaccine passport is required?
Italy has already begun implementing health passes for domestic travel. Photo: Piero Cruciatti/AFP

Since March 2020 most travel from the USA to Italy has been impossible. But that could soon change, as Italian authorities are considering how and when to allow non-essential travel..

So far, it looks likely that visitors who have been vaccinated will be allowed to travel to Italy using a “health pass”, including from non-EU countries.

The European Commission this week suggested opening the external European borders to vaccinated non-EU travellers – although the final decision on this will be down to each individual member state.

While details of how the pass would work, it is likely to require proof of a certificate of full vaccination, or potentially also a recent negative Covid test.

READ ALSO: How will the EU’s ‘Covid passport’ system work for tourists in Europe?

We’d like to know how our American readers feel about this requirement – and whether they feel it’s safe to visit Italy this summer.

Member comments

  1. Trying hard to keep our reservations in Italy this summer but if some announcement about dates to open doesn’t come soon, we will have to cancel and go to Greece, Spain, UK or somewhere else, we can’t wait forever.

  2. I agree with Angela. We have our airline reservations, tickets and hotels booked for mid-June.
    If something does not happen soon, we will have to change our reservations and wedding plans and go to
    Greece or another country this summer. Very mixed messages from Italy and no details on this supposed green pass.
    Just speak plainly about what Americans must do to get this supposed pass and arrive in Italy and when this can happen. Nebulous words about a green pass in the future are worthless.

  3. I have airline reservations booked for mid-July. I hope that by mid-June Italy will be open to Americans who are vaccinated and who wish to travel. I will travel for work (I am an Italy Travel Specialist with 30 years in the business). I will also be visiting friends and family in Italy who I have not seen since autumn 2019. I hope that the Italian Government gives us tangible instructions on what paperwork and/or “pass” we need prior to boarding the flight. I believe that Americans should be able to travel to the EU having been fully vaccinated and with the proper credentials. Likewise, I believe that members of the EU who wish to travel to the United States should be able to travel to this country provided that they also are vaccinated with valid passport, etc. In addition the CDC needs to be more cooperative with regard to their “advisory levels” without being political. I hope that they are working with the EU to come to some sort of agreement on this so that the borders can open and we all can get back to some sort of normalcy during these very “un-normal” times.

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HEALTH

Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

Denmark's government has struck a deal with four other parties to raise the point in a pregnancy from which a foetus can be aborted from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, in the first big change to Danish abortion law in 50 years.

Published: 3 May 2024 08:06 CEST
Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

The government struck the deal with the Socialist Left Party, the Red Green Alliance, the Social Liberal Party and the Alternative party, last week with the formal announcement made on Monday  

“In terms of health, there is no evidence for the current week limit, nor is there anything to suggest that there will be significantly more or later abortions by moving the week limit,” Sophie Løhde, Denmark’s Minister of the Interior and Health, said in a press release announcing the deal.

The move follows the recommendations of Denmark’s Ethics Council, which in September 2023 proposed raising the term limit, pointing out that Denmark had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Western Europe. 

READ ALSO: 

Under the deal, the seven parties, together with the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, have also entered into an agreement to replace the five regional abortion bodies with a new national abortion board, which will be based in Aarhus. 

From July 1st, 2025, this new board will be able to grant permission for abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy if there are special considerations to take into account. 

The parties have also agreed to grant 15-17-year-olds the right to have an abortion without parental consent or permission from the abortion board.

Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for Digitalization and Equality, said in the press release that this followed logically from the age of sexual consent, which is 15 years old in Denmark. 

“Choosing whether to have an abortion is a difficult situation, and I hope that young women would get the support of their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother,” she said. 

The bill will be tabled in parliament over the coming year with the changes then coming into force on June 1st, 2025.

The right to free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. 

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