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© Ti-Press / Ti-Press
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At the border crossings on the Italian side there was helplessness for many hours. According to the decree of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (57) nobody should be allowed to leave Lombardy or Piedmont.
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imago images
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Italy’s prime minister is taking drastic measures to combat the spread of the corona virus. Now Giuseppe Conte (57) declares Lombardy and 14 provinces a restricted area.
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Keystone
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The border traffic flows again. Some border guards on the Italian side had closed early Sunday morning. Then the borders were opened again.
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Downtown Milan is deserted on Sunday, March 8th. As of today, the entire region of Lombardy is considered a restricted area.
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keystone
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The hospitals in northern Italy are reaching their limits. Too many corona patients have to be treated in hospital and sometimes in intensive care units.
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Exactly two weeks ago, the first numbers came from northern Italy. A 38-year-old from Codogno (I) was diagnosed with the corona virus. “Patient 1” may have infected family, friends, colleagues and hospital staff, according to the Italian media at the time.
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Today almost 6,000 people in the country are infected and 233 have died of the virus. Most come from northern Italy. Switzerland has also reported 268 cases and two corona deaths (BLICK reported). There are over 100,000 infected and 3,500 fatalities worldwide.
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Decree passed at night
Because of the dramatic numbers, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (55) pulls the emergency brake at night on Sunday: shortly before three in the morning he declares all of Lombardy and 14 provinces in the regions of Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Marche to be restricted areas.
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Nobody is allowed out, nobody is allowed in. Until April 3rd. According to the decree, this also applies to all Italian border areas with Switzerland. So much for the information situation on Sunday morning. The consequences: The border crossing in Gaggiolo (I) temporarily closes, and the FART Centovalli train only runs to the Swiss border. In Ticino, where every third job is occupied by a cross-border worker, all alarm bells go off.
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Corona refugees don’t get far
Panic breaks out in Italy. Hundreds of Italians move to the main train station and the Porta Garibaldi train station, pushing the last trains south. Or they are still trying to get long-distance buses. Get out of the “red zone”. No matter whether with or without a ticket.
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“We’d rather pay a bus than stay in Lombardy,” some said in Italian media. They don’t get very far. In the south of the country, the “Corona refugees” from the north are being held and quarantined. There are mutinies in the prisons of Modena, Naples and Frosinone. Prisoners do not feel protected. They smash the detention center inventory, try to climb over the walls.
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Many hours of helplessness in Ticino
On Sundays there is perplexity on both sides of the Italian border. Around 70,000 cross-border commuters work in Ticino’s trade, factories, transport, hotels and restaurants, on construction sites, but also in healthcare. 3800 doctors and nurses come from the border area alone. May they come to work on Monday?
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“If our nurses could no longer cross the border, it would be a disaster for the Ticino hospitals,” says Luzia Mariani-Abächerli (67), President of the Ticino section of the Swiss Professional Association of Nursing Professionals (SBK), “because they are ahead all specialized in emergency care and intensive care. »
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Rome gives the all-clear in the afternoon
The Ticino economy is trembling too. CVP National Councilor Fabio Regazzi (57), President of the AITI cantonal industry association, is very concerned. Like the association director: “We had already considered moving the company holidays early,” says Nicola Bagnovini. Many companies have already booked rooms. “At our hotels, especially in Lugano and in the Mendrisiotto, there were hundreds of room reservations for cross-border commuters,” said Lorenzo Pianezzi, President of the Ticino section of Hotellerie Suisse, to BLICK. The Hotel Montaldi in Locarno TI, for example, offers a “Corona tariff” of CHF 25 per night.
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The big sigh of relief came yesterday at 6 p.m. “Italy has confirmed to Switzerland that the border between the two countries remains open to cross-border commuters,” wrote Federal Council spokesman André Simonazzi in a statement. “The border also remains open to goods traffic.” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio (33) announced this to his counterpart, Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis (58), in a telephone conversation. Condition: The cross-border commuters must have a document, such as the Ausländerausweis G, which proves their professional activity. How safe is it to let 70,000 cross-border commuters out of the restricted area into Switzerland every day? Not clear. The need for staff seems to be greater than the fear of possible contagions.
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