Italy's health minister has defended the tightening of rules for people entering the country from outside the European Union.
"In these hours, our priority can be nothing other than to continue working to keep our country safe," Roberto Speranza said on Thursday at a congress of the Italian association of nursing staff FNOPI.
Decisions such as the extension of the state of emergency and the restrictions on international travel are aimed precisely at this, he said.
Speranza went on to say that the goal was to avoid a significant increase in the number of infections and hospital admissions due to new variants like Omicron.
Starting on Thursday, all people entering Italy from other EU countries need a negative coronavirus test in addition to the usual proof of vaccination or recovery.
According to the order, PCR tests not older than 48 hours and antigen tests not older than 24 hours are accepted.
The measure, which was adopted at short notice, caught officials in Brussels off guard. The European Commission is attempting to maintain a common approach in the pandemic as new Covid-19 developments occur.
