Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Italy Requires Coronavirus Tests for Arrivals from These 4 Countries


Thu 13 Aug 2020 | 01:07 AM
Yara Sameh

Italy ruled on Wednesday that people traveling from Croatia, Greece, Malta, and Spain are required to be tested for the coronavirus on arrival.

The decision comes after new infections increase in the countries, which are popular holiday destinations for Italians.

Health Minister Roberto Speranza revealed on Facebook he had signed the new order, adding that anyone traveling from or through Colombia would not be allowed in Italy.

“We have to continue with a prudent approach to defend the results we’ve achieved thanks to the sacrifice we have all made in recent months,” Speranza added.

Italy has been the first European country to be heavily affected by the outbreak. It has recorded over 35,000 deaths since its outbreak came to light on Feb. 21.

The daily tally of fatalities and new infections have dwindled down over the last month, though less steeply than in numerous other European countries.

A total of 481 new infections were registered on Wednesday, and 10 deaths, the Civil Protection Agency reported.

 

Sterilizing from coronavirus in Italy

It is worth mentioning that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.

The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.

The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.

On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.

Abandoned Italy due to coronavirus

In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.

Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.

The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.