Shops, bars and restaurants closed on holidays and days before holidays: the squeeze that the government could decide today, Monday 14 December, to prevent what happened in the last few days. Facing the crowds in the streets, to the thousands of people in line for shopping and to enter restaurants, or piled up inside and outside the bars for lunches and aperitifs, new measures become inevitable to stop the infections from Covid – 19. And so, during the emergency meeting requested by the Democratic Party and convened by the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte with the heads of delegation, passes the line of the Minister of Justice Alfonso Bonafede representing the M5S: urgent convocation of the Scientific Technical Committee to decide, with the owner of the Viminale Luciana Lamorgese, new anti-assembly measures.
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The Merkel model
The ban on travel at Christmas, December 26th and January 1st 2021 it will only be eliminated for small municipalities, the rest of Italy will instead be considered as red zone. The Merkel model, as invoked several times by the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza which now reiterates: It is important that everyone is aware that the situation is still very serious. Conte knows well that citizens are tried by ten months of restrictions and for this reason in the evening he chooses to launch an appeal via Facebook: We have all been engaged, with great and small sacrifices, in the battle against Covid-19 for months now. Our national community, despite a thousand difficulties, managed to show a strong spirit of cohesion and a great sense of responsibility. I am convinced that we will continue to show this solidity also in the coming weeks, on the occasion of the Christmas holidays.
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The third wave
During the evening meeting Bonafede points the way: We need to assess the health risk and therefore need to have an overview of the situation of the experts. If there is the danger of an impending third wave, we must avoid it by intervening to prevent crowding. This is why this morning it will be up to the members of the CTS to outline the various scenarios and then suggest the appropriate remedies to prevent what will happen during the holidays, causing the epidemiological curve to rise again. But most of all can send health facilities into trouble. Even taking into account what may happen with the the boys’ return to school is already set for 7 January and with respect to which the government cannot afford new reverses.
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The gatherings
Lamorgese will give an account of the checks carried out, fines, but above all the measures taken in the last few hours to prevent gatherings. Many squares and streets have been closed because they are full of people, the fear that all this could repeat itself in the next few days. The prefects will identify the places where traffic must be blocked, considering that the real danger comes from the crowds in the shopping streets and historic centers, where bars and restaurants can remain open until 6pm. On commercial businesses and public places, the squeeze will be heavy. The hypothesis is an amendment to the Dpcm in force which now provides for its opening for holidays. We go back, we think about the lockout.
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The red areas
The rise in the rate of positivity is an alarming fact. And therefore, even if most of the regions will return to the yellow band as early as next week, all over Italy it was decided to trigger the prohibitions of the orange or even red band on holidays and days before holidays. It means closing bars, restaurants, ice cream parlors and pastry shops. Close the shops with the exception of pharmacies, tobacconists, newsstands, even if the exceptions granted by the Ateco codes still leave rather large margins. Today it will be decided whether to trigger the measure already on 19 and 20 December – as the rigorist wing of the government would like – or whether to sled around Christmas. However, the discussion will not be without obstacles, at least to hear the words of Minister Teresa Bellanova: Let us confront ourselves with the scientific community and decide on coherent and understandable measures. Let’s choose even more restrictive than the current ones if necessary, but understandable. Because this is the only way citizens will be induced to respect them.
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The small municipalities
Those who expected a wide derogation from the ban on moving between municipalities will be disappointed. The motion that could be filed this morning in the Senate from the parties of the majority provides that on Christmas day, December 26 and January 1 2021 it is possible to leave only the boundaries of centers with less than 5,000 inhabitants and reach places that are at a maximum distance of 30 kilometers. It cannot be ruled out that a less restrictive version of the law will pass during the debate at Palazzo Madama, but if this is the case – Conte and Minister Speranza have already warned – it will be Parliament that will take responsibility for what may happen later. The reasoning leaves no opening: If there will be the third wave, whoever pushed for it will have to answer
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