Travellers planning their escape to Italy are now able to enjoy their trip more as the country has decided to drop the mandatory mask requirement.
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The Italian authorities announced that since May 1, travellers are no longer required to wear a face mask when accessing bars, restaurants, museums, and supermarkets, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Nonetheless, it has been noted that the requirement to wear a face mask will remain in place for certain indoor places, such as hospitals and care homes.
Apart from lifting the mask requirement, Italy has also dropped the COVID-19 Green Health Pass. The Italian Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that travellers and citizens of the country are no longer required to present a Green Health Pass when accessing museums, hotels, pubs, and other activities and services.
In addition, the Italian authorities also decided to lift the passenger locator form requirement. The Ministry explained earlier this week that all incoming travellers are exempt from the requirement complete the Passenger Locator Form when entering Italy.
Despite lifting the restrictions mentioned above, Italy still continues to require travellers to meet COVID-19 entry rules.
Currently, Italy requires all travellers to present valid COVID proof – a vaccination, recovery, or test certificate – upon their arrival.
A vaccination certificate is considered valid when reaching Italy only if the document proves that the holder has completed primary vaccination in the last 270 days or has received a booster shot.
On the other hand, a recovery certificate is only accepted if it indicates that its holder has recovered from the virus in the last 180 days.
As for the negative COVID-19 tests, the Italian Ministry has emphasised that the country accepts both PCR and rapid antigen tests. The PCR test is accepted if it has been taken within 72 hours before arrival in Italy, and the rapid antigen test is accepted if it has been taken within 48 hours before arrival.
The decision of the Italian authorities to only ease some of their restrictions and not remove all of the entry rules follows that vaccination and infection rates.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that a total of 87.4 per cent of the entire adult population in Italy has completed primary vaccination as of April 29. In addition, another 75.9 per cent has also received an additional vaccine dose.
As for the infection rates, the data from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that Italy has reported 362,520 new COVID-19 infection cases in the last seven days.
