Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

Italy shuts discos and orders mask-wearing at night as Covid cases rise

Faced with an uptick in new contagions, being partially blamed on crowds of partygoers, Italy has ordered a three-week closure of all dance venues.

Published: 16 August 2020 20:31 CEST
Italy shuts discos and orders mask-wearing at night as Covid cases rise
People dance on the sand at beach club in Fregene near Rome on August 14th. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
In a decree signed by Health Minister Roberto Speranza on Sunday evening, the government also said that the wearing of masks would be mandatory at night – defined as 6pm to 6am – in “all spaces open to the public”.
 
“Proceed with caution,” the minister tweeted.
 
 
The new measure, to take effect on Monday and last through September 7th, comes after wrangling between the government and regions over the nightlife sector, which employs nearly 50,000 people in 3,000 clubs across the country, according to the nightclub operators' union SILB.
 
The decision comes at the tail end of Italy's sacrosant “Ferragosto” weekend, a major holiday during which most Italians go to the beach – and many flock to beach clubs and open-air discos in the evenings.
 
Indoor establishments had already been barred from operating.
 
Over the weekend, Italian newspapers have splashed images of throngs of young holidaymakers partying in recent days, as health authorities have voiced increasing worries over the possible spread infections.
 
 
Some clubs had reportedly struggled to make customers comply with the rules – despite DJs urging people to wear their masks and to keep their distance on the dancefloor.
 
Some regions, like Calabria in the south, had already ordered all dance venues shut, while others such as Sardinia have kept them open.
 
The move came after Italian authorities reported 629 new infections on Saturday August 15th – the country's highest daily tally of new infections since May.
 
Italy, the first country to be hit by the coronavirus crisis in Europe, has officially recorded nearly 254,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 35,000 deaths since the country's first outbreak was detected in late February.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

SHOW COMMENTS