OVERVIEW: Italy imposes 5-day quarantine, BioNTech ramps up vaccine production

The Latest: Italy orders 5-day quarantine on entries from EU ROME — Italy has imposed a five-day quarantine on people entering from other EU countries in a bid to deter Easter getaways and limit the spread of the coronavirus. Health Minister Roberto... AP NEWS

ROME — Italy has imposed a five-day quarantine on people entering from other EU countries in a bid to deter Easter getaways and limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Health Minister Roberto Speranza says he signed the new ordinance Tuesday. It requires a virus test before arriving in Italy, five days of quarantine once here and another virus test to get out of quarantine for anyone entering Italy from the EU.

Lobby groups, including those representing tour operators, had cheered the now-closed loophole that allowed Italians to travel to low-risk countries for pleasure.

Italy has long required quarantine for people arriving from non-EU countries, though exceptions abound, including for residents returning from short work trips and those flying on flights with tests at departure and arrival. ...

In other developments:

MADRID — Spain has tweaked its mask-wearing policy to make them mandatory in all outdoor activities, including exercise, swimming pools or beaches.

Masks were already mandatory in all public spaces, including outdoors, when a distance of less than 1.5 meters (5 feet) couldn’t be kept between people. ...

BERLIN— German pharmaceutical company BioNTech says that after ramping up its manufacturing and supply systems, it expects to manufacture this year up to 2.5 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine it developed with U.S. partner Pfizer.

The two companies had previously spoken of being able to make 2 billion doses in 2021. ...

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is reinstating weekend lockdowns in most of Turkey’s provinces and will also impose restrictions over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. ...

JERUSALEM — Israel has reopened its border crossing with neighboring Egypt for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli authorities on Tuesday started allowing 300 citizens per day to enter and exit for the purpose of tourism in the Sinai Peninsula, provided they pass coronavirus tests before each crossing and are vaccinated against COVID-19 or recovered from it. ...

BERLIN — New rules requiring all people flying to Germany to show a negative coronavirus test result before they board their plane have come into effect.

The rules, which were announced last week, took effect early Tuesday and are set to run until May 12. Travelers must show their airline a negative result in German, English or French from a test conducted no more than 48 hours before their planned arrival in Germany to board flights. ...