Due to the covid-19 pandemic, Italian regions are currently divided into three types of zones (yellow, orange and red), depending on the severity of the local epidemiological situation, and each week the situation is reviewed by a scientific committee.
Classified as a red zone last week, the Lombardy region returns to an orange zone starting on Sunday, according to a new decree signed today by the Ministry of Health.
The decree specifies that the Government took into account the “revised numbers” regarding the number of people still positive provided retroactively by Lombardy on January 20, validated on Friday by the Instituto Superior de Saúde, which advises the executive.
The situation still sparked today a lively exchange of words between the Lombardy region and the Government, with the region’s president, Attilio Fontana, saying he was “indignant” with the press for the dissemination of “false” and “offensive information for the Lombardia ”, and announcing that he would demand compensation for damages suffered in some economic sectors.
“If Lombardy turns orange again on Sunday, it is because we have contested the Government’s calculations,” he said.
Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza (Democratic Party) replied that Lombardy had in fact transmitted “wrong data”, which was corrected by its experts, and moved away from “meaningless polemics that are not good for anyone”.
Lombardy, where the pandemic developed before it spread across Europe, recorded 1,534 new cases of covid-19 and 104 deaths from Friday to today.
On Sunday, Sardinia changes from a red zone to an orange zone, which already allows circulation without authorization. Sicily and the province of Bolzano remain a red zone, which requires confinement.
Italy has recorded 85,162 deaths and 2.45 million positive cases since the start of the pandemic, according to today’s figures.
Worldwide, the disease has already caused at least 2,107,903 deaths resulting from more than 98.1 million cases of infection, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
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