Italy has joined the list of European Union Member States imposing additional restrictions on arrivals from fellow EU countries amid a warned third wave of COVID-19 infections.

The decision has been announced by the Italian Ministry of Health, according to which Minister Roberto Speranza will sign a new ordinance that will oblige everyone entering Italy from other EU countries to test before reaching the country.

They will also have to quarantine for a period of five days upon arrival in the country. On the fifth days, travellers may test again, and if they result negative, they are free of the obligation of quarantine.

Exempt from the new measures will be only those travelling to the country with a “proven necessity and urgency”, a ministry official has said.

Italian residents returning to Italy from other EU countries are also subject to the requirement of testing and quarantine.

So far, arrivals from EU countries were obliged to present negative results of a COVID-19 test, taken within the last 48 hours before reaching Italy.

As per travellers coming to Italy from third-countries, they have to stay in isolation for a period of 14 days.

The new measures have been mainly imposed due to the upcoming Easter break in a bid to discourage travelling. The country will go into a three-day lockdown in a bid to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Currently, Italy is the seventh most affected country in the world, with 3,544,957 COVID-19 cases registered from the beginning of the pandemic. The number of total deaths is 108,350, while there are also 565,993 active cases in the country.

Previously today, StudyinPoland.info reported that Portugal’s government prolonging its border controls with some EU states, where the incidence rate has surpassed 500 cases per 100,000 population, may be eligible to enter the country for essential business reasons and follow two weeks mandatory quarantine rule.

These countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, and Sweden.

Other countries have also tightened entry restrictions. Malta, for example, has moved all countries in the green category to the orange category after a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in these countries.

Portugal’s neighbour, Spain, on the other hand, has extended restrictions on unnecessary travel from countries outside the EU and the Schengen Zone until April 30 in order to halt the further spread of the Coronavirus disease.