- Five Americans who attempted to enter Italy after flying in a private plane to the island of Sardinia were rejected due to EU coronavirus restrictions.
- The EU has opened its borders to some countries, but the United States has been excluded due to its high rates of coronavirus.
- The travelers finally left the airport 14 hours after landing, CNN reported.
- But local officials seemed to regret the implications of the rule, claiming it could make the region look bad.
- Italy was once the worst affected country, but appears to have controlled its outbreak, while the United States is still dealing with spikes in the virus.
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Five Americans were denied entry to Italy after flying from Colorado due to the European Union ban on American visitors due to the high volume of coronavirus cases in the United States.
The Americans attempted to land at the Cagliari Elmas airport on the island of Sardinia on Wednesday, CNN reported. A police spokesman said they had to leave and they did so 14 hours after landing, according to CNN.
But while applying EU law, regional officials seemed to regret the effect for Americans. The flight duration from Colorado to Italy starts at approximately 15 hours.
Gianni Cessa, head of tourism for the Sardinia region, said he went to the airport “out of a sense of solidarity” with them.
Sardinia’s head of tourism, Gianni Chessa, met with travelers for “solidarity”.
Screenshot / TGV Videolina / L’Unione Sarda
“The rules must be respected, but there must be some common sense,” he said, The Associated Press reported.
And Christian Salinas, the governor of Sardinia, said those stories that have come “have seriously damaged our island’s international tourism credibility and our sense of hospitality,” according to Italian media reports translated by the AP.
Salinas had previously argued in favor of evaluating visitors to the island, which relies heavily on tourism, rather than banning them.
The travelers flew to Birmingham, England, CNN reported.
But US passengers have yet to be quarantined for two weeks in the United Kingdom, which has left the EU, and it is unclear whether travelers disembarked from their plane there, according to CNN.
Local newspaper L’Unione Sarda reported that the group also included visitors from the United Kingdom, Italy and New Zealand who would have been allowed to enter, but decided not to do so in “solidarity” with their fellow Americans. Eleven people were on board in total, CNN reported.
On Wednesday, the EU opened to international travelers from 15 selected countries outside the block, but the United States was excluded.
Sardinia
Michele Columbu
Three EU diplomats told NBC News on Thursday that the United States’ coronavirus cases were too high to be considered for that list with a saying: “The United States would never make it. Just look at its coronavirus situation.”
Italy was once the world’s worst affected country, having suffered a devastating outbreak before the virus took over many other countries, overwhelming the health service that forced doctors to make decisions about the lives of those to save.
The country has seen more than 241,000 and more than 34,000, and was forced to implement the first strict shutdown in the West to try to stop the spread of the virus.
A worker disinfects the Piazza dei Miracoli near the Leaning Tower in Pisa, Italy, on March 17, 2020.
Laura Lezza / Getty Images
But now, like most of Europe, its outbreak has been largely controlled, with those restrictions now relaxed. His new daily cases are now around 200, compared to more than 5,000 cases per day in March. Deaths are around 20, compared to more than 700 a day in March.
In comparison, the United States has seen more than 2.7 million cases and more than 129,000 deaths, and many states and regions are experiencing their peaks in both cases and deaths.
