ITALY and the rest of Greece are next at risk of being placed onto the UK’s quarantine list after a rise in cases puts them both in the ‘amber’ zone.
Along with Denmark, which is also a high risk, the countries may follow in the footsteps of Portugal and Hungary, which were taken off the UK safe travel list last week.
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Seven of the Greek islands were added to the quarantine list last week for England, while the entire country was added by Scotland.
Italy, while once the epicentre of Covid-19 in Europe, has managed to keep cases much lower than other European destinations such as France – which saw 10,000 new daily cases over the weekend – and Spain – which has the highest cases in Europe.
However, Quash Quarantine spokesperson Paul Charles warns that Italy and Greece are next at risk if cases do not go down.
Italy’s new daily cases per 100,000 people are 16.5 and Greece is 15.4 – if they go over 20 then they are likely to face quarantines.
Denmark is currently at 28.7.
The UK government usually announce new restrictions on Thursday evening, which are then enforced from Saturday at 4am.
However, new guidelines now allow the government to enforce regional quarantine rules rather than a country-wide blanket travel ban.
This could be good news for Italy, where cases of coronavirus on the islands of Sardinia are seeing huge spikes, while other parts of the mainland remain much lower.
Testing facilities in Lazio in Italy have traced 800 cases in recent weeks back to the island, according to the Guardian.
Sicily remains safer, with Mr Charles explaining: “We’re keeping an eye on #Sicily – it had 106 new positive cases yesterday and has had nearly 1000 new cases in the last 12 days. But it remains well below 20/100,000 on a 7-day cumulative basis.”
Since the Greek islands – which includes Mykonos, Crete and Zante – were placed onto the quarantine list, the country’s tourism minister slammed the new rules.
Harry Theoharis told the Guardian: “From the point of view of headline numbers, it’s a decision that is unfortunate and unfair.”
He explained: “There have been 13 cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days in Greece, which is below other countries and below the UK’s own self-imposed yardstick.
“We are very much hoping it will be reviewed as soon as possible.”
Islands such as Corfu, Rhodes and Kos remain off the quarantine list if entering England, as well as mainland Greece.
TUI has stopped all holidays to Laganas amid concerns that social distancing was not being followed, along with holidays to Crete, Zante, Santorini and Mykonos.
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EasyJet is also cutting flights to the Greek islands after the UK government announced strict new quarantine restrictions.
Brits must also fill in a Passenger Locator Form before entering Greece or face fines up to €500.
Italy has no entry restrictions for British tourists.