Sanitary measures continue to tighten in Italy. The government, faced with a rebound in contagions due to the Omicron variant, decided on Wednesday evening to require the vaccine pass in transport, hotels, restaurant terraces, fairs and conferences as well as swimming pools and gyms. Sports enclosures will be subject to gauges: 35% for covered enclosures and 50% for outdoor ones.
These new restrictions will come into force on January 10, according to the decree-law “introducing urgent measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic” adopted during a Council of Ministers chaired by Mario Draghi. Until now, to take the train and the plane, it was enough to be in possession of a “basic” health pass, which could be obtained through vaccination but also with a negative test.
A little less than 100,000 new cases in 24 hours
The vaccination pass, known in Italy as “reinforced health pass”, is obtained only with a complete vaccination cycle or after recovery from Covid-19. It is currently required for certain professional categories such as health personnel and law enforcement. Almost 100,000 new cases – 98,020 to be exact – were registered in the country on Wednesday, and more than 600,000 people are currently positive.
To prevent the paralysis of certain economic sectors such as transport, the executive has however chosen to relax the rules on quarantine. He decided on Wednesday to remove the ten-day isolation for vaccinated or cured contact cases of Covid-19. The unvaccinated will have to continue to respect a ten-day quarantine.