Italy’s health minister Orazio Schillaci, said on Wednesday that Italy has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travelers from China, where cases are surging.
Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, which began testing passengers from Beijing and Shanghai on December 26, showed almost one in every two passengers had been infected.
“This measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus to protect the Italian population,” said Minister Schillaci.
On the first flight to Malpensa, 62 passengers from China were tested and 35 tested positive for Covid, the Lombardy’s health chief Guido Bertolaso said on Wednesday. On the second flight, 62 of 120 people tested positive.
Japan said it would require travelers from mainland China to be tested for COVID-19 on arrival starting on Dec. 31. Taiwan would begin testing travelers from China on Jan. 1.
Source: Radio Free Asia, December28, 2022 https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-12282022134702.html