Amid concerns of another COVID-19 wave in Europe, Italy blocked UK residents from attending Saturday’s match of Euro 2020 in Rome, Ukraine vs England. The Italian government has also asked the Euro 2020 governing body UEFA to cancel tickets of UK residents.

This comes as several agencies have raised concerns of an upcoming wave of COVID-19 in Europe, prompted by the spread of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India last year in October. The World Health Organisation said COVID cases were on the rise again in Europe after two months of decline and warned a new wave would come “unless we remain disciplined.”

The Italian authorities had “specifically asked UEFA to cancel tickets sold to UK residents as of 28 June, stopping sales and transfers as of 21:00 this evening,” a statement from UEFA said on Thursday.

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Under these measures, UK people, who bought tickets before June 28, were given an hour to either transfer their tickets to Italian residents or return their tickets to UEFA.

The block on ticket sales had been decided “following a proposal from the Public Safety Department,” the Italian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Earlier, Italy had imposed a five-day quarantine period on people, who stayed or travelled through the UK in the past two weeks, entering the nation from June 18.

Euro 2020 has triggered spikes in COVID-19 cases from fans. The WHO said a new wave can come due to relaxation of restrictions, low vaccination coverage, and spread of new variants.