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HEALTH

Italy relaxes Covid rules to allow up to 1,000 fans at sporting events

Up to 1,000 spectators will be allowed at open-air sporting events in Italy, sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Friday, on the eve of the return of Serie A football.

Published: 18 September 2020 14:38 CEST
Italy relaxes Covid rules to allow up to 1,000 fans at sporting events
Spectators have not been allowed so far at the tennis Masters 1000 in Rome, but that's set to change from Sunday. Photo: AFP
The change will come on Sunday, meaning Saturday's opening Serie A games (Fiorentina v Torino Verona v Roma) will be behind closed doors but nine-time
reigning Serie A champions Juventus could kick off their season against Sampdoria on Sunday in Turin with fans in attendance.
 
Spadafora only mentioned tennis, with the WTA and ATP Italian Open running in Rome until Monday.
 
“From the semi-finals and finals, 1,000 spectators can be present at all sports competitions which take place outdoors and which scrupulously respect
sanitary rules,” the minister  said.
 
 
Organisers who want to partially reopen stadiums will have to respect “rules laid down for spacing, masks, seat reservations,” the minister said.
 
He said the decision was “a first step, but a significant step towards a return to normality in sport, which we hope for soon.”
 
The government in Rome had been under enormous pressure from sporting events organisers furious at the government keeping its ban on spectators in place when it announced an updated emergency decree on September 7th.
 
 
The organisers of the Rome Masters said it was a “huge injustice” to have to play behind closed doors while the French Open would be able to welcome spectators.
 
Football clubs had also been demanding an end to the financially crippling closure and a gradual reopening of stadiums after more than six months.

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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.”

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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).

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