Italy announced today that it was extending the COVID-19 state of emergency until March 31 amid fears that the new version of Omicron would be released, Reuters reported.
The state of emergency imposed in January 2020, which expires at the end of this month, entitles the central government to impose restrictive measures in the country without regard to local authorities.
In addition, the Ministry of Health ordered from 16 December to 31 January all persons arriving in Italy from EU countries to take a negative test for COVID-19. Until now, this requirement only applied to citizens of non-EU countries. The unvaccinated will be left in quarantine for five days upon arrival.
The number of new cases on a daily basis in Italy is constantly increasing. Today, 20,677 newly infected and 120 COVID-19-related deaths were reported.
The pressure on hospitals is not as strong as in neighboring Austria and Germany, where the fourth wave of the pandemic began earlier.
According to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Italy, 27 cases have been registered with the Omicron variant.
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