Smaller areas in Lombardy and Veneto have been closed for some time due to the Coronavirus crisis. Now the Italian government wants to cordon off larger areas in the north of the country. This should bring about changes in everyday life for around 60 million citizens.
Italy is largely blocking economically powerful Lombardy and 14 other areas in the fight against the spread of the novel corona virus. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said as the Ansa news agency reported. He signed the relevant decree.
This affects the metropolis of Milan and the tourist stronghold Venice as well as Parma in the Emilia-Romagna region. The government also confirmed or imposed restrictions on all of Italy, such as the stop for cinemas, theaters, demonstrations, and many other events.
The government’s new announcements are likely to further change the everyday lives of around 60 million citizens after the measures already taken, such as nationwide school closings, are already affecting many every day. “We are facing a national emergency,” said Conte. “We fought them with maximum precautionary measures right from the start,” added the Prime Minister. “We have two goals: to contain the spread of the infection and to avoid overloading the hospital facilities.”
According to the Ansa news agency, Conte said mobility would not be stopped entirely. So there is no stop for flights and trains. But a trip must have a reason and the police can stop people and ask about them.
Leave only on “serious” occasions
The new restricted areas should apply from immediately until April 3, newspapers wrote. One should only enter or leave these zones for “serious and inevitable” occasions, for example for work or family reasons, it said. According to the announcement, the blocking measures have affected 14 provinces in addition to the Lombardy region, including those in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto in the north.
But the brands in the middle of Italy are also there. The list that Conte called consists of: Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro and Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Vercelli, Padua, Treviso and Venice. This means that entry and exit bans affect well over ten million people.
Even within the new restricted areas, residents are no longer allowed to move around freely, as the Prime Minister announced. “There is limited mobility,” he said. You should only leave your house for a good reason. Bars and restaurants are only allowed to open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., but only if they ensure that there is a distance of at least one meter between the guests. Times were also restricted for shops. Italy is the country with the most confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infections in Europe.
5883 people with an infection
The number of infected and dead people is increasing steadily despite extensive countermeasures. By Saturday, the authorities counted 5883 people with an infection. 233 people have died.
In order to get the crisis under control, the government in Rome, among other things, had previously closed all schools in the country, kindergartens and universities by mid-March. Lombardy is considered the heart of the Italian economy. Some time ago, smaller areas with around 50,000 people in the province of Lodi in Lombardy and in Veneto had been declared restricted areas. This precaution is now being expanded and supplemented, said Conte.
The new restricted areas should apply from now until April 3, the newspaper “La Repubblica” wrote. The government’s deliberations on the tightened measures had lasted since Saturday. At the end of the week, there had already been speculation in the media in Italy about whether and how the government could expand the prohibition zones because of the coronavirus wave. The economy has already suffered heavily from the Corona crisis in the country. For example, tourism collapsed.
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