ROME - With the number of coronavirus cases in Britain once again growing exponentially, Italy have imposed a five day quarantine period on all Brits coming into the country, even the vaccinated, starting on Monday. 

  In the last seven days in the UK there have been an average of 8,500 new cases every day, and 10,800 on Thursday. However, hospitalisations have so far remained relatively low as the 42.5 million most vulnerable in the UK have had their first vaccine dose (and 30.9 million have been double dosed). Though cases have double in the last couple of weeks, it is mostly the young being infected.

  The growing concerns in Italy are particularly in view of the 3,000 Welsh fans expected in Rome on Sunday for their Euro 2020 match against Italy in the Stadio Olimpico - though they will all sneak in before the new measures are imposed, much to the outrage of many Italians.

  “Why is the UK Quarantine rule valid only on Monday when thousands of Welsh fans are expected to be in Rome on Sunday? You have to give time before it is applied,” said Gianni Rezza, director of research at the National Institute of Health (ISS). “ And anyway fans are all checked.”

  Though Rezza has stressed that he doesn’t design the measures that have caused such polemics, he has tried to interpret them, saying, "Probably, when you impose measures of this type you have to give time for them to be applied, because otherwise, as has happened other times, you risk blocking people when they land in Italy. After that the people who arrive should be tested before arriving, there is no doubt.”

  In addition to these anti-Delta measures, the Italian Health Ministry has also extended the ban on arrivals from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

  The Delta variant is yet to fully take grip on Italy, as it has in other European countries, and so Health Minister Roberto Speranza has taken early precautionary steps to ensure that the supposedly more contagious strain doesn’t spread any further.