One day was all it took for Italy to reimpose new severe travel restrictions on U.S. travelers after the European Union as a whole decided to remove the country from its list of safe countries.
On Monday, countries within the 27-nation bloc, which includes Italy, Germany and Spain were advised to reinstate coronavirus-related restrictions and halt the arrival of tourists from the US and five other nations.
The highly infectious Delta variant spreading among unvaccinated Americans and the lack of reciprocity to allow European residents to enter the United States was the last drop that made the cup run over for EU leaders.
New Travel Conditions for American Visitors
The new Italian restrictions will affect not only American tourists but also every person with travel history to the U.S. territory over the last 14 days, warned the Italian Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
- All vaccinated inbound travelers must now present proof of both vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test taken no longer than 72 hours prior to arrival in Italy.
- Unvaccinated visitors must undergo a 5-day mandatory quarantine and get retested on arrival – Quarantine must be observed regardless of the traveler’s test result.
- Italy will also need visitors to be traceable. To do so, Americans must fill out a passenger locator form to identify potential outbreak clusters.
- Finally, before departure tourists must get Italy’s digital COVID certificate also known as Green Pass so they can access most tourist venues. (This is not optional).
Same restrictions will apply to visitors from Japan, Canada and Israel. Countries like Germany, Belgium and Czech Republic had already imposed their own restrictions.
Back in June, the European Council welcomed back leisure travelers from 14 countries, including the United States due to its very low pandemic numbers.
However, the surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks and the increasing number of children being hospitalized have raised concerns among international experts.
“What is going on now is both entirely predictable, but entirely preventable. And you know we know we have the wherewithal with vaccines to turn this around,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious diseases expert.
The EU recommendation is not mandatory and can be modified as long as the U.S. meets the 3 criteria to be put back on the white list.