COVID: No new variant in China arrivals says Schillaci

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 30 - Passengers arriving at Italian airports from China have so far shown no new COVID-19 variants since testing became mandatory amid a virus surge in the Asian country two days ago, Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said Friday.
    "The goal is to sequence the results of the positive samples to check whether in the passengers arriving from China there are variants of the sarsCoV2 virus other than the known ones.
    "So far we are absolutely reassured because all the cases sampled prove that they are all variants of Omicron already present in our national territory", said Schillaci on 'Oggi è un altro giorno' on Rai Uno, stressing that "in the first flights arriving at Malpensa from China one out of every two passengers was positive, while in the flights that arrived at Fiumicino the percentage fell to between 10 and 20%".
    Schillaci added that the ministry might recommend using face masks in Italy again if cases rise sufficiently.
    "If there is an increase in cases we could again recommend the use of masks indoors, but today we are not in this situation because the data are down and we are in a situation of serene tranquillity; however, we continue to be vigilant and now we focus on the responsibility of citizens" . (ANSA).