Green Pass for trains and planes amid anti-vax alert

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 1 - The government's COVID-19 Green Pass vaccine passport became compulsory for travel on long-distance trains, buses and domestic airplanes on Wednesday amid an alert for announced protests by anti-vaxxers.
    Police heightened security at train stations overnight against the anti-vaxxers, who had threatened to block trains Wednesday afternoon.
    But the planned protests largely failed to materialise, apart from a 30-strong demo outside Rome's Termini Station including militants from the far-right Forza Nuova movement.
    In Naples only two demonstrators came to the main rail station while in Genoa about a dozen protesters turned out, and in Turin one man was arrested.
    Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese had said there would be a zero tolerance policy against anyone found guilty of trying to interrupt a public service, which is a c rime in Italy.
    Foreign MInister Luigi Di Maio, who has received death threats on social media for his pro-vax stances, warned that "blocking the possibility of moving means repressing freedom".
    Trade unions had also warned against the planned blockade saying "anyone who decides to interrupt services, in the name of the freedom to not get vaccinated, will not have our support".
    Meanwhile Education Minister Patrizio Bianchi announced the introduction on September 13, when most Italian schools reopen, of a 'super app' that will check the Green Pass at school, where it will also be obligatory.
    Only head teachers will check the vaccine passport, he said.
    On Wednesday two Turin teachers at a school that has opened early said they had been denied entry because they did not have the pass.
    Meanwhile conductors have returned to Italy's buses after many years off to check the Green Passes.
    The Pass provides proof of having had at least one COVID jab, although most people have now had two. (ANSA).