Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 12 May 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Digital Green Certificate and Rapid Antigen Testing: Discussion
Mr. Ivan Bassato:
In our country, we have mandatory quarantine only for some specific countries where the passengers are from and where we have variant concerns. This was implemented, for example, for passengers arriving from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka very recently. In general, quarantines in Italy have been implemented as trust-based quarantines. In the case of the Covid-tested transoceanic corridor, the testing is done immediately after disembarkation - a few steps after passengers are out of the plane. It is applied to 100% of the passengers. It is an antigen test. It enjoys the confidence of the public health authorities because the test is performed by them. We have an agreement. Initially, in the first phase of the pilot, the test was administered for free. It is no more like that. We have an agreement with a most important institute of Italy based in Rome for transmissible diseases to carry out the test directly at the airport. The doctors, nurses and the testing kits are provided by the public health authorities that are administering the test directly. I do not know if I said that the price for the test is €20, and that is mandatory.