Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

REGIONS

How Covid-19 restrictions have changed in five of Italy’s regions

Italy has relaxed the rules in five regions after the latest data indicated the risk had eased. What can residents do now, and what remains against the rules?

Published: 30 November 2020 09:50 CET
How Covid-19 restrictions have changed in five of Italy's regions
Drinking coffee on the beach in Varazze, Liguria. The region has just relaxed its Covid-19 restrictions. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

As of Sunday, November 29th, five Italian regions find themselves with a little more freedom after their risk level was downgraded.

Based on the latest weekly health data, the Health Ministry decided to ease restrictions in Calabria, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Sicily.

MAP: Which zone is your region in under Italy's new tier system?

But that doesn't mean they're in the clear. Three of the five regions are still classed as 'elevated risk' zones, while the other two remain under the baseline restrictions in place everywhere in Italy, including a nightly curfew.

Here's how the Italian government has updated the tier system that divides Italy into yellow (moderate risk), orange (elevated risk) and red (high risk) zones, and what that means in practice.

Red to orange zones: Calabria, Lombardy and Piedmont

These three regions are no longer under Italy's maximum coronavirus restrictions, but remain areas of heightened risk with more precautions than some other parts of Italy. 

What you can do there now that you couldn't before:

  • Travel freely within your own comune, or municipality (previously only allowed for work, study, health or emergency);
  • Go shopping for non-essentials (previously only supermarkets, pharmacies and other shops selling basic necessities were open);
  • Go to middle school in person (previously pupils in their final year of middle school had to study remotely, but now all 11-13 year olds can attend class);
  • Go to a sports centre (previously all sports facilities, including outdoors, were closed to the public).

What you still can't do:

  • Leave your municipality or region, except for essentials;
  • Go out between 10pm and 5am, except for essentials;
  • Eat or drink in a bar or restaurant;
  • Go to a shopping centre on weekends;
  • Attend high school or university in person;
  • Go to a gym, museum, theatre, cinema, bingo hall, arcade or betting shop.

Find out more about the rules in Italy's different zones here. 


Restaurants remain closed in Turin, Piedmont. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

Orange to yellow zones: Liguria and Sicily

These two regions are no longer under increased restrictions, but must continue to observe Italy's minimum Covid-19 precautions.

What you can do there now that you couldn't before:

  • Travel freely within your own region, or to another yellow zone (previously limited to essential reasons only);
  • Eat or drink in a bar or restaurant until 6pm (previously they were closed to diners).

What you still can't do:

  • Travel into an orange or red zone, except for essentials;
  • Go out between 10pm and 5am, except for essentials;
  • Attend high school or university in person;
  • Go to a shopping centre on weekends;
  • Go to a gym, museum, theatre, cinema, bingo hall, arcade or betting shop.

What about the rest of Italy?

With the latest update, Italy's risk zones stand as follows:

Red (high risk) zones: Abruzzo, Campania, Tuscany, Valle d'Aosta, autonomous province of Bolzano (also known as Alto Adige/South Tyrol).

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

Yellow (moderate risk) zones: Lazio, Liguria, Molise, Sardinia, Sicily, Veneto, autonomous province of Trento (also known as Trentino).

The classification is expected to remain in place until at least December 3rd, when the current emergency decree expires and will be replaced by revised rules.

Find all The Local's coronavirus coverage here.

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