Only One Flight from Italy Scheduled Soon

One flight from Italy is expected in Iceland on Saturday, Morgunblaðið reports. The whole country of Italy has now been defined as a risk area for Icelandic tourists, due to the spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. Three cases of the disease have been confirmed in Iceland, and all three people diagnosed were recently in Italy.

The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management has issued a statement, saying that passengers on board the flight are expected to be quarantined upon their return, as were the passengers who arrived from Italy on February 29.

On board the flight will be people who purchased ski trips from the travel agencies Vita and Úrval Útsýn. This is a charter flight, arranged by the two travel agencies. About 70 of the people are traveling with Vita, but Úrval Útsýn would not reveal how many are traveling with them.

The two travel agencies have no other trips planned to Italy. “There was a city trip planned to Verona for next weekend,” states Þráinn Haraldsson, managing director of Vita, “but it was canceled last week, since Verona had been defined as a risk area by then. The ski areas, though, were not within the defined risk area until yesterday.”

The group of Icelanders currently skiing in Italy, and to be transported to Iceland on Saturday, left Iceland on February 29, that is, a day before the entire country of Italy had been defined as a risk area.

According to Ásdís Ýr Pétursdóttir, media representative for Icelandair, the airline has no scheduled flight to Italy until May 16.