With the ministerial order of December 28, the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci decided to indicate the way forward to prevent the return of the Covid emergency. Therefore, i return tampons at the airport for those arriving from China, the masks – although not mandatory – but strongly recommended.
It was precisely the Tuscany Region that had its say on the evolution of the virus in China which only a few days ago, in the words of President Giani, criticized the Lombardy Region, the first to implement the control and prevention rules even without a ministerial order. Even before the government’s decision, ingatti, in the Lombard airports the swabs – albeit not mandatory – for those arriving from China were decided directly by the Region. But Tuscany absolutely did not like this step forward: “Leaks forward by the Regions are not appropriate”, commented Giani, also underlining that “it is never advisable to take a path alone to make yourself beautiful compared to the other”.
To confirm the thesis also the councilor for health of Tuscany who “unloaded” everything on the government and on the unitary provisions: “We expect that on these matters there will be homogeneous indications for the whole national territory”. And these have arrived, as did the turnaround of President Giani who signed the ordinance establishing the controls outside the airports of Florence Peretola and Pisa because – now – “the situation must be monitored”.
But there’s more: although swabs are not required by law and should only be carried out for passengers arriving from China, that leap forward previously judged “inappropriate”, now it is Tuscany that is making it. On the one hand, the regional decision to swab even those arriving through more than one stopover, as there are no direct flights to Tuscany from China, and on the other the absolute mandatory of the swab. “There are those who say that an optional swab could have been intervened – explained the governor -, just for statistical and information purposes. But no, it must be mandatory”.
In the meantime, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control also has its say on the return of restrictions, which considers passenger screening a measure “unjustified”. In fact, the EU agency declared that “European countries have relatively high levels of immunization and vaccination” and that “the variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU”.
