Italy is partly going into lockdown again due to the rising contamination figures. The government has decided this after a week of consultation with the scientific advisory council and local authorities. The new, stricter measures will certainly apply for the next 3.5 weeks, until the day after Easter.
All regions where code yellow now applies, and where catering is allowed to open until 6 p.m. and museums are open during the week, will at least change to code orange. This means that the catering industry and museums will have to close again, as will some of the secondary schools. This applies to the regions of Abruzzo, Calabria, Liguria, Molise, Apulia, Sicily, Umbria and the Aosta Valley.
Only with statement on the street
More than half of Italy will end up in a hard lockdown (code red) due to the high level of contamination. This means that non-essential shops and all schools must also close and that people can only take to the streets with good reason and a signed statement. Code red applies to South Tyrol, Basilicata, Tuscany, Marche, Lazio, Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Campania.
That hard lockdown will apply across the country over the Easter weekend. Easter is one of the most important holidays in Catholic Italy, with Italians visiting family or picnicking in the park with groups of friends. With code red on 3, 4 and 5 April, the government wants to prevent people from coming together too much and the current third wave from getting even bigger.
Critical limit IC exceeded
In recent weeks, Italy has increasingly come under the control of the British corona variant. That virus is now the dominant variant in the country and is also increasingly spreading among young people at school. As a result, the reproduction number in Italy has risen above 1 again. The number of hospital admissions is rising sharply, and the critical limit for the number of corona patients in intensive care has now been exceeded.
Incidentally, one region appears to be exempted from the stricter measures. Sardinia has been code white since last week and will remain so for the time being, due to the low number of infections there. There are hardly any restrictions there. Mouth masks must be worn, however, a distance must be kept.
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