Returning vacationers drive Italy’s surge in COVID cases

ROME — With thousands of travelers being tested at Italy’s airports and some ports, the nation where Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak began registered a seventh straight day of increasing new infections Sunday, mostly driven by returning vacationers.

Sicily’s governor, meanwhile, ordered all migrant residences on the Italian island to be shut down by Monday, part of a pushback by Italian regions alarmed by a steady climb in COVID-19 cases a few weeks before schools are to reopen.

But people coming in from Mediterranean Sea resorts abroad as well as from the Italian island of Sardinia have accounted for far more of Italy’s new coronavirus infections lately than have migrants.

Italy registered 1,210 new cases Sunday, the highest daily number since May 12 and only weeks after it saw new infections plunge to about 200 a day.

The Lazio region, which includes Rome, and the hard-hit Lombardy region led the nation in regional new caseloads Sunday.

Lazio Gov. Nicola Zingaretti appealed to the governor of Sardinia to test vacationers before they sailed or flew to the Italian mainland, saying his region would do the same for travelers leaving for Sardinia, but there was no indication Sardinia would oblige.

Sardinia, which had been counting barely a handful of new daily cases in recent months, registered 81 new infections on Sunday, compared to 44 a day earlier.

In Sicily, Gov. Nello Musumeci’s order took effect on Sunday, requiring that all migrants who reach the island by sea be transferred off to combat the spread of COVID-19 and all centers housing migrants awaiting asylum applications must be shut down by Monday.

His order, effective through Sept. 10, also forbids any boat, including charity vessels, from bringing migrants to the island.

“I can’t ask our people to keep a (safe) distance, wear masks and do other measures while the state amasses people in two rooms,” Musumeci said, referring to the migrant centers.

But the national government is in charge of migrant policies and Musumeci acknowledged that his directive might be challenged in court.