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HEALTH

Reader views: Should Italy declare a new Covid lockdown?

The Italian government is discussing new restrictions to halt the coronavirus infection rate as it rises once again. We asked readers what form those new measures should take - here's what you told us.

Published: 10 March 2021 17:51 CET
Updated: 11 March 2021 09:24 CET
Reader views: Should Italy declare a new Covid lockdown?
Could Italy be heading for another strict lockdown like the one in spring 2020? Photo: Filippo MONTEFORTE/AFP

As hospital intensive care units are again coming under pressure, the government is this week evaluating further nationwide restrictions.

Ministers are considering several options, from extending the current evening curfew to a national lockdown.

READ ALSO: Lockdown by next week? These are the new Covid restrictions Italy is considering 

An announcement is expected by Friday if the infection rate rises again this week, and new rules could come into force as soon as Monday, March 15th.

However, the government is reportedly split over what form of additional curbs to introduce.

Several leading health experts have recommended a total lockdown while Italy gets its struggling vaccination programme up to speed.

Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP

The government’s own panel of scientific advisors, the CTS, is reportedly recommending strict nationwide lockdowns, on weekends at least.

But some ministers are keen to keep the current tiered system of restrictions in place, meaning the rules vary depending each region’s contagion rate.

Announcing the current national emergency decree on March 2nd, health minister Roberto Speranza said that the current system of tiered restrictions should stay in place.

“We believe that differentiating between areas is the right way, because it allows us to give the most suitable answer to each part” of the country, Speranza said.

He also said the growing number of localised ‘red zones’ and other additional restrictions in hard-hit areas would continue to be “indispensable” in keeping infections under control.

READ ALSO: Where are coronavirus cases rising fastest in Italy?

But after living under the changing local measures for four months, do people in the country think this system is working? Would Italy be prepared to go into a second nationwide lockdown – just over a year since the first was announced?

A poll published by Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper suggested that 44 per cent of people in Italy would back a strict lockdown, up from 30 per cent two weeks earlier.

When we asked The Local’s readers in a Twitter poll, opinions were similarly split.

A slight majority of 41.2 percent said they would opt for a nationwide lockdown, with one reader commenting: “Get it over and done with in one full lockdown – otherwise, it’s just a game of whack-a-mole that everyone is growing weary of.”

 Meanwhile 38.7 percent said that, of the options being considered, they’d choose to continue with the tiered system.

As one reader put it: “The tiers have potential, but they aren’t defined well enough. I think enforcement has gotten lazy, too. Increasing vaccines should be a bigger priority than it is.”

READER VIEWS: Should Italy introduce coronavirus vaccine passports?

Another 12.6  percent thought lockdowns on weekends only – the option preferred by the CTS – were the best choice.

And 7.6 percent wanted to see something different altogether.

Several people commented to say they wanted to see all restrictions lifted – but right now, that’s one scenario the government is not considering.

Find all of The Local’s latest updates on the coronavirus situation in Italy here.

Member comments

  1. It’s incredibly difficult to decide but, if it helps to flatten the curve, and possibly make people realise that their actions are what matters going forward, I’m all for it.

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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.”

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).

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