Italy has reduced the three-month ban on arrivals from Bangladesh amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladeshis will now be able to enter the EU member country from Aug 1.

After Italy notified the airlines about the new decision, the Bangladesh foreign ministry said the ban will end on Jul 31.

The ministry also brushed aside media reports that Bangladeshis travelled to Italy with fake COVID-19 test reports as incorrect.

The European nation has not yet imposed a rule that would require Bangladeshis to get coronavirus-negative test reports for entry.

Some of the 1,600 Bangladeshis who travelled to Italy recently underwent coronavirus tests in Bangladesh considering that the reports would come in handy in Italy.

The ministry, however, conceded that some Bangladeshis did not follow quarantine rules of the Italian government, possibly spreading the virus.

As many as 65 of 5,000 who gave samples in the past week tested positive, according to the ministry.

Fiorenza Aini, a spokeswoman in the press office of Italy’s justice ministry, said that she was not aware of any current joint investigation between Italy and Bangladesh, according to The New York Times.

Italy is conducting tests on around 30,000 Bangladeshis in Lazio region, which includes Rome, after clusters of cases found in the Bangladesh communities.

More than 6,000 coronavirus swab tests had been carried out on people who travelled to Italy from Bangladesh in the month of June, as well as people they came into contact with, The New York Times reported, citing Giuseppe Mazzara, a spokesman from Lazio. So far, 191 had tested positive, he said.

Taheer Hussain, a Bangladeshi migrant labourer who works in the kitchen of a restaurant in Milan, told the Times that Italian newspapers have been continuously reporting on a surge of COVID-19 cases in the Bangladeshi community, making ordinary workers suspect.

“People are looking at us with suspicious eyes,” Taheer said, “as if we all are infected by virus.”

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/07/16/italy-reduces-entry-ban-period-to-allow-bangladeshis-in-from-aug-1