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Italy approves Covid-tested flights from US to Milan

Passengers can now fly from the United States to northern Italy's biggest airport without quarantining if they book a special 'Covid-free' flight.

Published: 11 March 2021 11:13 CET
Italy approves Covid-tested flights from US to Milan
Passengers at Milan Malpensa airport. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

Covid-tested flights, which require all passengers to test negative for coronavirus in the 48 hours before boarding as well as taking another test on arrival, have already been operating between the US and Rome for just over two months.

Now the Italian Health Ministry has given permission for airlines to extend the service to Milan’s Malpensa airport, the second-biggest hub in Italy after Rome Fiumicino.

In a circular issued on March 10th, the ministry also extended the scheme until at least the end of June 2021, with the possibility of continuing it further.

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That means that until at least July, passengers will be able to fly from New York or Atlanta in the US to either Rome or Milan without having to quarantine for two weeks.

Italy’s international travel restrictions continue to apply, meaning that the only people eligible to fly from the US are those with an essential reason, such as returning to a permanent residence in Italy or to study or work.

Delta could start offering the service between Milan and New York as soon as this weekend, according to reports, while American Airlines is expected to follow next month.

The first Covid-tested flights proved so popular that the Italian government recently said it wanted to extend the scheme to other countries.

Italy’s last government had already signed off on Covid-tested flights between Italy and Germany, with Lufthansa originally slated to start running services from Frankfurt and Munich to Rome early this year, but those plans were put on hold when Germany went back into lockdown.

The scheme stands to make the biggest difference for travellers outside the European Union, who currently have to spend 14 days in quarantine if they come to Italy.

People arriving from other countries within the EU or Schengen zone – with the exception of Austria – can instead simply show a negative test result from the 48 hours before travel.

Italy has also begun experimenting with Covid-tested train travel, including introducing a high-speed connection between Rome and Milan next month that passengers will have to take a test to board. If successful, the scheme could also be extended to Florence, Venice and Naples. 

Member comments

  1. Anyone know if I, a U.S. citizen, can travel to Italy from the U.S. without my Italian wife. She resides in Italy. We were separated by covid.

    1. spouses of legal residents in italy can travel to italy. I’m an american living here and my american husband was able to visit me without any problems. you just need to show proof of the relationship and have her ID and residency documents. there are other articles on this website that explain it, and you can also look at the FB groups love is not tourism-italy

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POLITICS

Former Italian PM faces investigation over Covid response

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte is set to undergo a judicial inquiry over claims his government's response to the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020 was too slow.

Published: 2 March 2023 09:14 CET
Former Italian PM faces investigation over Covid response

Prosecutors in Bergamo, the northern city that was one of the epicentres of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, targeted Conte after wrapping up their three-year inquiry, according to media reports.

Conte, now president of the populist Five Star movement, was prime minister from 2018 to 2021 and oversaw the initial measures taken to halt the spread of what would become a global pandemic.

Investigating magistrates suspect that Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed that cases were spreading rapidly in Bergamo and the surrounding region.

They note that in early March 2020 the government did not create a “red zone” in two areas hit hardest by the outbreak, Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, even though security forces were ready to isolate the zone from the rest of the country.

READ ALSO: ‘Not offensive’: Italian minister defends Covid testing rule for China arrivals

Red zones had already been decreed in late February for around a dozen other nearby municipalities including Codogno, the town where the initial Covid case was reportedly found.

Conte’s health minister Roberto Speranza as well as the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, are also under investigation, the reports said.

Bergamo prosecutors allege that according to scientific experts, earlier quarantines could have saved thousands of lives.

Conte, quoted by Il Corriere della Sera and other media outlets, said he was “unworried” by the inquiry, saying his government had acted “with the utmost commitment and responsibility during one of the most difficult moments of our republic.”

READ ALSO: Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Similar cases have been lodged against officials elsewhere, alleging that authorities failed to act quickly enough against a virus that has killed an estimated 6.8 million people worldwide since early 2020.

In January, France’s top court threw out a case against former health minister Agnes Buzyn, a trained doctor, over her allegedly “endangering the lives of others” by initially playing down the severity of Covid-19.

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