May 6 - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Tuesday said the country would welcome back tourists from other European Union nations in mid-May.

 

“Waiting for the European Certificate … we have a national green pass that will enable people to move from region to region and will be operational by mid-May, so let us not wait until mid-June for the EU pass,” Draghi said, according to Reuters.

 

“In mid-May tourists can have the Italian pass … so the time has come to book your holidays in Italy,” he added.

 

Draghi made the comments at a meeting of tourism ministers from the Group of 20 nations in the EU, according to Reuters.

 

About 11% of Italy’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University. Italy in April became the first European country to require that healthcare workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

The country faced a third wave of COVID-19 in March.

 

According to the Johns Hopkins data, Italy over the past week had 1,894 deaths from COVID-19, down from a record high of 5,303 deaths in March 2020. About 80,000 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in Italy over the past seven days, down from the record high in that time span of more than 243,000 cases in November.

 

 

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