Andrea Bocelli confessed to breaking containment rules in his homeland at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, revealing that the lack of freedom imposed by the containment had left him “humiliated and offended”.
The Italian tenor was a guest speaker at an Italian Senate conference on Monday, where he joined right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini in challenging the government’s strict measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Having tested positive for the virus in May, when the nation was in lockdown, he told conference attendees that at the time he was feeling ‘fine’ and had only a ‘slight fever’ . “I know a lot of people, but I didn’t know anyone who went to intensive care,” he said.
He added that he ignored the order to stay confined because he believed it was “neither fair or healthy to stay home at (his) age”. “I need sun and vitamin D”, he explained. The singer did not explain in detail how he violated the restrictive measures, but claimed that he had “not committed any crime”.
On Tuesday, the Undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, suggested that Andrea Bocelli expressed the displeasure of every Italian who, because of the confinement, stayed at home ”. “I wouldn’t have said those words, but I imagine he will be able to explain himself in one way or another,” he added.
Italian leader Giuseppe Conte has since proposed plans to extend the state of emergency in the country. At the height of the pandemic in Italy, more than 4,000 people were in intensive care. The country was also briefly seen as the global epicenter of the epidemic.
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