On year after Italy was sealed off, would the scenario repeat itself? Although the word national “containment” has been dismissed by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, on the ground, the situation does not seem much different. Faced with the spread of the virus in the four corners of the country, the transalpine authorities have decided to place more than half of the regions of the country in the “red zone”. Beautiful country, including those of Milan, Turin and Venice. Even the region of Rome, Lazio, long spared from the restrictions, is now forced into sanitary caulking.
A decision which, as of Monday, will mean for nearly 40 million Italians the closure of bars and restaurants, ban on travel even within the municipality of residence – except for compelling reasons – and passage in distance courses for 100% of students , from kindergarten to high school. The other half of the country will change from yellow to orange, synonymous with high risk of the virus and additional strengthening of health measures. With the exception of Sardinia, the last island of diehards which, for a week already, has enjoyed the status of “white zone”, synonymous with the total lifting of restrictions (except wearing a mask and social distancing).
And the executive does not intend to stop there. In Friday’s decree, in addition to financial aid granted to Italian families, the government also announced that it wanted to “facilitate” the transition to “red” from territories where the virus is circulating too quickly. Now, crossed the weekly threshold of 250 contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants, confinement will become automatic. The same rigor is expected for the Easter holidays where the days of April 3, 4 and 5 are already classified “red” by Rome, as had already been the case for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Italians will then only be allowed one visit to a relative, at most two, and only within the borders of their region. In short, the Italian Passover 2021 promises to be as gloomy as the previous year.
The fatalistic Italians
A new turn of the screw which, today, does not seem to surprise the Italians. Well aware of the recrudescence of the virus and its variants on the territory, half of the population even said they were in favor of a national reconfinement, according to a recent survey for the AdnKronos agency. There would only be 35% refractories. It must be said that for several days now, transalpine virologists have not ceased to sound the alarm bells. After having stagnated for a long time, the contamination figures started to rise again. Same concern about deaths when Italy recorded more than 2,100 deaths related to the coronavirus last week. Alarm also on the intensive care front (+ 25% admission in the space of a month) where half of the regions of the Peninsula have already announced that they have crossed the alert threshold. In the lead, Umbria, in the center of the country, where already 60% of the beds are currently occupied.
For the president of the Gimbe Foundation (reference in Italy on the monitoring of the pandemic), Nino Cartabellotta, no more doubts now: the “third wave has been launched”. And therefore further restrictions were inevitable. The scientist recalls: “All the regions and provinces where red zones have been set up in recent weeks have stemmed the growth of infections, demonstrating the effectiveness of restrictive measures to lower the contagion curve. ”
“I am aware that today’s measures will have consequences on the education of children, on the economy and even on our psychological state to all”, admitted Friday Mario Draghi, during a speech in a vaccination center, in the suburbs of Rome. “But they are necessary to avoid an aggravation which would make even stricter measures inevitable”, insisted on the head of government. If the new tenant of the Palazzo Chigi ensures that the country is redoubling its efforts to develop its vaccination campaign, the only real “hope for an exit from the pandemic” (today around 170,000 doses administered daily), the Italians are warned: the next few weeks will be tough.

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