Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte announced late Friday that Italy will be reopening its borders for cruise ships starting on August 15th, 2020.
It's the latest move to boost Italy's tourism industry hit hard by the global pandemic.
The approval came despite COVID-19 infections being confirmed in passengers and crew in recently resumed cruises in other European nations.
Norway decided to close its ports to cruise ships for two weeks after dozens aboard a cruise liner tested positive for the coronavirus.
Costa, the Italian cruise line is expected to start sailing shortly after August 15th as the announcement falls in line with the end of their voluntary cruise suspension.
“The global health situation requires unprecedented actions to ensure health protection worldwide. We have decided to further suspend the activities of our ships until August 15, 2020 and to cancel cruises in Northern Europe. We want to cruise again with you and we will do it as soon as the emergency ends.”
Costa has scheduled reopening cruises starting on August 15th with stops in Greece who also reopened their ports for cruise ships as of August 1st.
Italy has created a safe list that allows for travel to Italy from some European countries without the need for quarantine.
Only passengers from the approved country list will be able to board and disembark the cruise ship at Italy ports.
The Prime Minister also announced 600 million euros ($720 million) to help support the restaurant industry and the farm sector.
With tourism now largely limited to Italians and some other Europeans during the pandemic, many cafes and trattorias risk going out of business.
Since Italy reopened its borders on June 3rd, 2020 the country has only seen a slight uptick in confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Italy has confirmed 249,756 cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began with 35,190 deaths according to John Hopkins University.
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Dorsoduro
Tuesday 11th of August 2020
how about deciding on allowing outside visitors based on sickness of the individual rather than a whole country. Otherwise you risk killing countless businesses and livelihoods when you don't really have to. This is specially true when tests results are highly inaccurate as are reported deaths both of which are deeply used towards political purposes and agendas.