Delta strain alert, new law: Quarantine for arrivals from the UK

Minister Speranza signs the decree: from Monday to stay in Italy they will have to undergo 5 days of credit isolation and isolation

Rome. The delta variant is scary, but up to a point. Yesterday, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, signed an order to re-impose a 5-day quarantine, with a smear obligation, for those coming from Great Britain. Measurement remained in the air for several days, after infections rose (yesterday even more than 10 thousand) on the island, due to the new surge of the virus. But the quarantine commitment will not start immediately, and will only come into effect on Monday, and it is difficult to think that this postponement has nothing to do with the Italy-Wales European football match scheduled for tomorrow at 6 pm at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Therefore, visiting fans arriving from Cardiff will only need to submit a negative swab to be taken within 48 hours of departure. However, there will not be much: in Baku, in the first two matches of the group, about 400 have gone and there will also be a few hundred in the Olympics.

Certainly not because of the lack of association with their national team, but because both Azerbaijan and Italy are still included by the British government in the list of “high risk” countries: those who come to us on their return to Great Britain must put themselves in home isolation for 10 days. Double what Speranza decided, although the former Indian variant is growing there (for now) not here. Last week, an estimated 76,000 cases, concentrated in England and Scotland, were fortunately fewer in Wales. Among other things, it mainly affects young people and adults between the ages of 5 and 49: 2.5 times more than it affects those over 50, according to an analysis by Imperial College London. Another study raises the average effectiveness of existing vaccines (such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca) against hospitalization to 75% after just one dose.

But Gianni Reda, director of prevention at the Ministry of Health, is not confident: “We have seen that partial evasion of Delta-type vaccines means that a single dose may not cover them – he explains -. So in Great Britain the second doses are accelerating, but we have always adopted a double dose regimen and this would protect the population even more.” In any case, the obligation to quarantine those coming from Great Britain will also apply to those who have already been vaccinated, because, contrary to Reza’s assurances, it is possible that the alternative will penetrate the vaccine and an infected person, without symptoms or with mild symptoms, in turn spread the infection. The same decree provides for entry from European Union countries, as well as from the United States, Canada and Japan, with green corridor requirements, thus no longer needing a negative swab for those who have been vaccinated or recovered from Covid.

On the other hand, it has ordered the extension of entry ban measures for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the delta variant is also worrying in Portugal, so much so that in Lisbon it was decided to close the perimeter of the metropolitan area on weekends, to try to avoid an increase in infections and ensure the safety of the rest of the country. Portugal can face England in the round of 16 of the European Championship, with a capacity of Wembley Stadium in London that will be expanded to 45 thousand spectators. Crowded stadiums, such as those already seen in Budapest, do not like Angela Merkel: “It is nice to see the fans returning to the stadium, like the 14,000 who were in the stands in Munich – says the German chancellor – but when I was seeing the stadiums so full, I am skeptical To some extent, this is the correct answer to the current situation.”