Guido Bertolaso, Lombardy Provincial Welfare Officer, announced on Wednesday that more than half of the passengers who arrived in Italy for the Christmas holidays from China had tested positive for Covid at Milan Malpensa Airport. The Ministry of Health is considering compulsory testing for people arriving from China.
For example, the official mentioned the flight that arrived from Beijing in the early evening of December 26, in which 62 of its one hundred and twenty passengers tested positive.
Tourists from the Far Eastern country have been tested since December 24: mainly those arriving on flights between Beijing and Milan. Inspection is voluntary at the moment, but is “highly recommended”. An antigen test costs twenty euros, while a molecular diagnostic test costs ninety euros.
Guido Bertolaso emphasized that, despite the cost, passengers did not pass out from the test. He indicated that the arrivals, including those who tested positive for the virus, did not show symptoms.
Guido Bertolaso, the former head of the Civil Protection, has been working as a social welfare adviser in Lombardy since November. The northwestern Italian province of ten million inhabitants was the first in Europe to have the SARS-CoV-2 virus identified in February 2020.
Lombardy was the first region in which dozens of municipalities were first placed under quarantine, and then the entire region was locked down.
Guido Bertolaso stated that the laboratory examination of the tests will be completed by Thursday: based on the results, they will be able to confirm with certainty whether those arriving from China carry the already known variants of the new coronavirus, on the basis of which they are. Vaccines protect effectively, or “we are faced with new, unknown mutations.”
In the case of the latter, according to Bertolaso, the Italian Ministry of Health will be responsible for introducing appropriate precautions.
In a statement, Spallanzani Epidemic Hospital in Rome called for measures at European level to identify and contain the new viral variants. As a solution, the hospital called for an initial quarantine for passengers arriving from China.
The ministry announced that Health Minister Orazio Schillaci is following the situation with particular interest.
The ministry added: The reintroduction of mandatory tests for all passengers arriving from China is under study, which the ministry also wants to coordinate with the member states of the European Union.
Since 2020, more than 25 million Italians have fallen ill and more than 184,000 have died from the disease and its complications. More than 88 percent of the population has received three doses of the vaccine, and more than 38 percent have received a fourth vaccination.
(MTI)
