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If the experimentation, which will start at Fiumicino airport in the next few weeks, is successful, our near future as passengers will have a different schedule: we will go to the terminal one hour earlier than usual (in fact, two hours before departure for a domestic flight, three to four to one intercontinental), to perform the quick swab and be sure that it does not test positive for the coronavirus. However, the passenger will also be offered an alternative, which could be even more interesting if the formula “one ticket, one buffer” is also extended to long-haul flights.
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Suppose you have bought a ticket to New York. To avoid going too early to the airport, we will have a plan B: within 72 hours before take-off, we will be able to show up on the road that will open today in the long-term parking lot at Fiumicino airport and run the swab. The two options are foreseen in the plan that they are studying in the Lazio Region, in collaboration with Aeroporti di Roma, which, in terms of testing, has made the facilities (very popular on social networks) available in record time for the evidence of those returning from Spain, Greece. , Malta and Croatia.
Airlines are showing a lot of interest: given that we won’t have the vaccine tomorrow, the ability to quickly swab on departure seems to be the only weapon to jumpstart air traffic. The idea we are working on is to test the system on domestic Rome-Milan flights. We must be realistic: thinking about the swab at the beginning is ambitious, more complicated than the oiled mechanism today in arrivals. The departing flight, in principle, cannot wait. The fear of many, however, is that experimenting with the system on the Rome-Milan section could favor the real competitor: high-speed trains.
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The Minister of Health of Lazio, Alessio D’AmatoHowever, he thinks otherwise: “If we can catch up with fast buffers at the departures of Rome-Milan flights, we will offer an exceptional added value: the certainty of traveling safely.” A flight with all the passengers who have taken the test is a guarantee not only for health, but also against the risk of ending up in quarantine. Many wonder: but what will happen if, when I did the swab at the beginning and it is positive? Obviously the quarantine will begin, but if you are infected, knowing it is the most important thing, for your health (because you face any illness in time) and for that of loved ones to whom the virus will not be transmitted.
The prospect is to go beyond experimentation on the Rome-Milan flight and expand the service to intercontinental ones. These days, in Spallanzani, the effectiveness of another type of test, the salivary, less invasive and faster, is being evaluated. Just yesterday in the United States the FDA (the health authority) authorized such a tampon. All these tools could also be useful to implement the plan that Health Minister Roberto Speranza is working on: agreements between nations (in particular France, Germany, Spain and Italy) on airport tests. A European summit on this topic will be held on September 4. Meanwhile, today the drive-in begins in the long-term parking lot of the Fiumicino airport, which can also be used by passengers arriving on night flights. “We believe that it is our duty to guarantee the maximum support together with the Region, the Government and our community.
The rapid construction of a large drive-in at the airport not only testifies to the awareness and commitment to implement everything possible to confront the Covid-19 emergency with determination, but also, in perspective, also contemplates the possibility of offering all our passengers an additional opportunity to manage contagion control activities in a simple and fast way ”, says Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma. Last updated: 08:02 © REPRODUCTION RESERVED
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