ROME: After more than two years of coronavirus restrictions, the Italian government has announced it will phase out the restrictions. However, coronavirus cases are once again on the rise.
On May 1, COVID-19 health certificates, proving vaccination or recent recovery from the Coronavirus, will no longer be required to gain access to a wide range of services, including restaurants, gyms, and public transportation.
Starting from April 1, the requirement that anyone aged over 50 should be vaccinated to enter their place of work will expire.
The state of emergency, which allows public authorities to bypass bureaucracy and impose rules via decrees, will expire on March 31. From that date, the board of experts advising the government on COVID will be disbanded.
“These are important measures that remove almost all the curbs that have restricted us,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi told a news conference following a cabinet meeting.
“I would also like to thank all Italians for their altruism and patience over the years. We are often perceived as having little sense of civic duty, but instead we have done very well in this pandemic. We should be proud,” he said.
Italy was the first Western nation to be clobbered by the disease and it has so far registered 157,442 deaths, the eighth highest tally in the world.
However, a recent decline in infections has come to an abrupt end, with cases rising strongly since the start of the month, as they have in many other European countries.
Many European nations have removed their COVID curbs more aggressively, with France opting to lift most of its restrictions at the start of this week.
However Italian think tank Gimbe urged caution on Thursday.
“Measures have to be relaxed on the basis of scientific evidence, not to emulate other countries,” it said in its weekly report.