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Covid-19: Italy relaxes rules in five regions as contagion rate slows

Based on the latest data presented by Italy's health authorities on Friday, three red zones and two orange zones will be downgraded this weekend.

Published: 27 November 2020 19:35 CET

Covid-19: Italy relaxes rules in five regions as contagion rate slows

Photo: AFP

The red-zone regions of Calabria, Lombardy and Piedmont will become orange zones.

Orange zones Liguria and Sicily will turn yellow.

Italian health minister Roberto Speranza will sign an ordinance on Friday night, and the changes will come into effect from Sunday November 29th.

The ordinance will also renew current measures in Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Marche and Tuscany.

This means that as of Sunday the regions will be divided as follows:

Red (high risk) zones: Tuscany, Abruzzo, Campania, Valle d'Aosta, province of Bolzano.

Orange (medium risk) zones: Puglia, Calabria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Umbria, Basilicata, Friuii-Venezia-Giulia.

Yellow zones: Liguria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio, Molise, Veneto, province of Trento.

The classificatons are made based on the coronavirus situaton locally according to each region's weekly health data.

EXPLAINED: How Italy decides which regions are Covid-19 red zones

GRAPHS: Track the spread of coronavirus in every region of Italy

This week, the data showed a decrease in the incidence of Covid cases nationwide over the last 14 days.

Though the latest health data shows that the second wave has peaked in some regions, health experts stress that the epidemic a long way from over.

Some regions are expected to reach the peak around Christmas, while in others the data is not following a steady downward trend.

People in the highest-risk zones are told to stay within their comune, or municipality, and are only allowed to leave for work, study, health or other essential reasons.

Find all of The Local's latest coronavirus updates here.

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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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