The Foreign Office has advised British residents against all but essential travel to Italy after the country extended coronavirus quarantine measures nationwide. The updated guidance, issued on Monday, also recommends that anyone arriving from Italy should self-isolate for 14 days.
Italy initially imposed a lockdown on northern regions on Sunday, affecting 16 million people. On Monday evening, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended restrictions on travel and public gatherings to the entire country. Hundreds of British tourists were already scrambling to return from the north, a situation expected to worsen with the nationwide lockdown.
Despite travel restrictions for Italians, flights between the locked-down region and the UK continued. The Foreign Office is under pressure to change its advice from 'all but essential' travel to a total ban, as ambiguity affects insurance payouts for cancelled trips. Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance defended the lack of screening for arrivals from northern Italy, stating that temperature screening at airports has little effect.
Tour operators Inghams and Crystal Ski are working to bring customers home from ski resorts in northern Italy, where ski lifts have closed or are due to shut. Inghams said over 600 customers would be repatriated within 48 hours, including guests from areas not previously locked down. British Airways, Ryanair, and easyJet have reduced flights to and from northern Italy.
Passengers described scenes of empty streets and closed businesses in Milan. Seana Corr, 27, from Wirral, said after arriving from Milan: 'Everything has been cancelled. There are no social gatherings any more. The streets are empty, people are out of work.' Some customers criticised tour operators for poor communication, with one group of GPs expressing anger over being left uninformed while their hotel faced a coronavirus outbreak.
