All travellers who wish to travel to Italy from the European Union or Schengen Zone countries remain obliged to follow quarantine rules upon their arrival, as the country’s government has extended such preventive measures until at least May 15.

According to the ordinance signed by the Health Ministry, travellers from the EU or Schengen Area must present a negative result of the COVID-19 test upon their arrival, not older than 48 hours, then self-isolate for five days.

After spending five days in quarantine, they must take another COVID-19 test; if they receive a negative result, they will be permitted to leave quarantine, worldwidecollege.in reports.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the self-isolation rules for EU travellers, first introduced on March 31, have now been prolonged three times.

In March, authorities in Italy announced that the country would follow the example of other European Union Member States by imposing additional restrictions for arrivals from fellow EU countries to stop an upsurge in the number of infections.

Then, the country’s government foresaw it necessary to extend test and quarantine requirements for citizens of EU countries until April 30.

Italy is the 8th most hard-hit country worldwide from the Coronavirus disease. Since the beginning of the pandemic, authorities have reported 4,022,653 cases of infection, and 120,807 persons have died.

According to the figures published by Worldometers, more than 3,465,670 persons have fully recovered from the disease, while there are over 436,170 active cases.

Italy’s government confirmed that it would also tighten the rules for arrivals from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, after evaluating that these three countries recently reported record-high infection rates.

Under Italy’s international travel restrictions, tourism within the European Union countries remains possible; however, it is discouraged by Italy’s Foreign Ministry, which urges all persons not to travel abroad unless absolutely necessary.

Italy faced a total of €120.6 billion financial loss and a 51 per cent decrease in contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. These figures were all the result of the Coronavirus pandemic as almost all countries worldwide temporarily suspended international travel in order to stop the further spread of the disease.

Besides, more than 330,000 persons engaged in Italy’s travel and tourism industry lost their jobs last year, facing many problems.

In a bid to revive the country’s tourism sector, last month, authorities in Italy introduced a “COVID-free islands” vaccination plan to vaccinate all residents of holiday islands.