The governor of Sicily ordered the closure of all migrant houses on the Italian island until Monday, amid a crackdown in Italian regions alarmed by an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases just a few weeks before schools were re-opened.
But while some new migrants tested positive, tourists who returned from the resorts of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as from the Italian island of Sardinia in recent times, have represented many newer coronavirus infections in Italy.
On Saturday, Italy recorded 1,071 new cases, the highest number since mid-May and only a few weeks after the country saw the number of new daily infections reduced to about 200.
The Lazio region, which includes Rome, overtoyed Lombardy on Saturday in the largest number of new cases, and the returnees were examined at airports in the Rome region and a port north of the Italian capital.
On the continent, most of the most recent cases were similar to travelers from abroad.
Those arriving from Spain, Malta, Greece and Croatia will have to be tested within 48 hours of their entry into Italy, after those posts have begun to revel in the worrying increase in coronavirus infections.
And many recent groups of coronavirus have been attributed to other people who have spent holidays in Sardinia.
With many others taking ferries between Sardinia and mainland Italy, Lazio has established a verification facility at Civitavecchia Pier, so cars driving boats can line up for quick verification.
The governor of Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti, called the governor of Sardinia tourists before sailing or flying from the island to the mainland, saying that the region would do the same with travelers departing for Sardinia.
In Sicily, Governor Nello Musumeci’s ordinance came into force on Sunday, demanding that all successful migrants on the island by sea be transferred as part of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
It stipulates that all centres hosting migrants awaiting the prosecution of asylum programmes will be closed until the end of Monday. His order, in force until September 10, also prohibits any ship, adding charity boats, from bringing migrants to the island.
But the national government, the regional governors, are aware of migration policies and Musumeci has stated that its directive can be challenged in court.
On Saturday, migrants accounted for 16 of the infections shown in Sicily.
Although in recent years, at most all migrants arriving in Italy by sea have been rescued through humanitarian groups, cargo ships or army ships, this year only about 80% of arrivals have arrived on Italian shores on their own, most of them leaving Tunisia.
Many disembark on the small island of Lampedusa, whose migrants are dangerously overcrowded. Italy has quarantined newcomers on chartered ferries from Sicily.
“I can’t ask our other people to stay at a (safe) distance, wear masks, and take other action while the state brings other people together in two rooms,” Musumeci said, referring to migrant centers.
Governor Vincenzo De Luca, who heads the Campania region, added that Naples raised the option that if the daily infection numbers become “alarming, we will ask the government to reduce the boundaries” between the regions that were in force in much of Italy’s closure.
Some have called De Luca’s caution a pre-election stance for governor in several regions, his, in September.
“What are you going to do, send the carabinieri (to prevent those outside from entering your region)?”The governor of Tuscany, Enrico Rossi, told the newspaper Corriere della Sera.
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