Will it be an April Fool's joke or a summer solstice?
When will it be possible to go back to traveling peacefully to the countries currently on List E drawn up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
From what is happening within the Italian Government and from what both the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza and his colleague of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia, as well as their undersecretaries, have declared in recent days, there are several possibilities.
The first, the most optimistic and consequently less realistic, is to reopen everything on April 1st, the traditional day of jokes, of "fake news". It would also be an ironic move on the part of those who are usually not very gifted with this quality, forgetting both that the great politicians of the past had in their sense of humor one of their best qualities, and that many of our current rulers were created by a comedian.
In announcing the end of the state of emergency that has lasted for two years on March 31, the Prime Minister Mario Draghi has already spoken of a "gradual reopening" of the country, but the leaked rumors do not mention the issue of the division of foreign non-Schengen countries into "bands", something that clearly belongs to the original Prime Ministerial Decree, resulting from the state of emergency.
What could happen on March 31?
Hypothetically, the bands could disappear, or new lists could be created that also take into account the current and real situation of Covid-19 in all countries included in the above-mentioned lists. On the other hand the same criterion was used to create the so-called "covid free corridors", so it would be automatic to check who has improved in the meantime. Kenya, from this point of view, not only has 25% of the adult population vaccinated, but is one of the six countries chosen by the WHO to produce their mRNA vaccines soon (as we wrote here). In short, even if the lists in the latest DCPM were not to be abolished, the makings of at least sliding it from Band E to Band D would already be there.
The second hypothesis considers a gradual reopening to travel, coinciding with the slow retirement of the Green Pass. The Undersecretary for Health Andrea Costa explained how eliminating the requirement for vaccination certificate to access certain services and entertainment, the same could remain as a "conditio sine qua non" for other purposes.
One of these could be just the trip abroad and its return without quarantine, as has already been decided for the countries of band D. So in this case from April 1 could go to Kenya for tourism only if equipped with Green Pass and without having to do the quarantine on return.
The third possibility, the one that unfortunately is making its way in recent days, is that travel abroad are kept in bambagia until the last moment, even to allow the "settimini" to book safe vacations in Italy or in the Mediterranean area. To then open totally abroad after June 15, precisely around the summer solstice that falls on June 21.
Some charter companies are already preparing for this eventuality, combining direct flights to Zanzibar with those to Mombasa. Neos hopes to be operational from June 28 but more likely to start from mid-July. Kenya Airways has already announced that it intends to reopen the Milan-Nairobi route in June and Turkish is also thinking of restoring the Instambul-Mombasa flight before the summer.
The reopening of the world is near, now only the date and the will of all are missing.