Italy extends mask mandate in public transport to September

Italy's final restrictions on wearing masks in public places will be phased out from Thursday, with the exception of most types of commercial transportation, care homes, and healthcare settings.

Following a cabinet meeting on late Wednesday, Roberto Speranza, the Minister of Health, affirmed the decision with his signature on an ordinance.

The mask requirement will apply to all forms of public transportation in the country, including ferries, trams, trains, and buses, until 30th September.

However, according to reports, the cabinet has decided to repeal all of the restrictions on air passengers. The requirement for wearing a mask in indoor sporting events, concert halls, theatres, and cinemas was lifted too.

When taking final examinations, schools will not insist that children wear masks, but they continue to advise it.

The modifications will come in almost immediately from Thursday, June 16th, as previous rules lapsed on Wednesday, June 15th.

There was no more information on alterations to the law at the moment. It is anticipated that the government will release a decree with comprehensive information about the revised rules in the next few days.

It is not clear yet whether the authorities are considering dropping the laws on seclusion and quarantine for patients that have contracted the coronavirus. 

In Italy, the Covid vaccination requirement ended for over-50s on Thursday, but it will remain in place for care home workers and healthcare until at least the end of 2022.

While the Italian government is working to reduce as many rules as possible, individual companies and local authorities may still create additional laws than those established nationally, implying that some regulations may differ from one location to another.

The government's "roadmap" to eliminate all restrictions on masking in public areas besides just health facilities was initially intended to be implemented in March, according to the health minister, but due to rising infections, that plan was shelved.

After months of steadily decreasing infection rates across Italy, the spread curve has once again grown to a seven-day mean of 21,000 from the 15,000 of the previous week.

In fourteen of Italy's twenty-one regions and autonomous provinces, fresh infections have increased. Local upsurge in towns, such as Milan, where the count of fresh verified infections rose to 1,095 from 261 in just a week, is of particular worry.

The spread of the coronavirus sub-variant BA.5 which according to Italy's Higher Health Institute (ISS) is more communicable and has a superior capacity to overcome vaccine-induced immunity, is believed to be behind the recent infection spikes in Italy just like in Germany and Portugal. BA.5 has been linked to 1.4% to 13% of new infections in Italy, according to present predictions.