[ad_1]
Italy announced 474 new deaths on Saturday in its daily death report, just two days after the lack of confidence, although the authorities assured that this rise was due to deaths not accounted for in April.
With this new figure, Italy has a total of 28,710 deaths from Covid-19, and remains the most affected country in Europe.
In April, 282 people died in non-hospital centers in the Lombardy region, the one most affected by the pandemic. If that figure is discounted, the trend is still initially positive in Italy: since Friday, 192 new deaths occurred, which had not happened since March 14.
Shortly before the release of the new balance, the head of the Civil Protection, Domenico Arcuri, asked the Italians “not to let your guard down.”
“The second phase begins on Monday. We have to be aware that it will be the start of an even bigger challenge,” said Arcuri.
It may interest you: About 2% of Moscow residents have coronaviruses, according to their Mayor
After a two-month confinement to fight the virus, Italians will be able to stroll through the parks and visit relatives. Restaurants are authorized to sell takeaways and stores will reopen.
Scientists will keep a close eye on the rate of spread of the virus, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that it could be reinstated, by region, if the numbers increase significantly again.
Arcuri confirmed that the “relative freedom” that the Italians will regain could be lost again for health reasons.
“We must maintain social distancing, the highest levels of hygiene and masks. We have done the best we can. Since Monday, it is up to you,” he said at a press conference.
Starting next week, the authorities plan to carry out some 150,000 tests. Experts are trying to get a clearer picture of their spread of the coronavirus as confinement is lifted.
Arcuri said the government had also purchased more than five million swabs (cotton swabs for testing purposes) to be distributed nationally.
Starting Monday, some 50,000 stores, from pharmacies to warehouses, will sell masks at a maximum price of 50 euro cents (about 60 cents) set by the government. The number of points of sale will double in the middle of the month.
Italy will produce four million masks per day in mid-June, 25 million in mid-July and 35 million in mid-August, Arcuri said.
Deep educational change
On the other hand, the authorities are studying a profound educational change, the Italian press reported. Schools will be closed until September, but nurseries and kindergartens may reopen in June.
These reopens would be made by small groups, from 3 to 6 children, 0 to 6 years, whose temperature would be controlled at the entrance, the daily Corriere della Sera details, citing a project by the Ministry of Education.
Children will not wear masks, but teaching staff will be forced to do so.
Closing schools until September is especially damaging to working women, numerous voices in Italy have criticized.
The Prime Minister repeatedly stressed the potential for contagion that children have and the risk that the pandemic will resume and infect teachers.
Italy has the oldest teaching body in the OECD countries, almost 60% of teachers are over 50 years old.
More than 8.5 million young Italians have not attended school since confinement began on March 10. Due to the lack of computers at home, many were unable to follow school programs remotely.
In an interview with La Repubblica, Patrizio Bianchi, head of the committee in charge of preparing the new school year, which will begin in September, stated that 3 billion euros per year will be needed for five years to restructure the educational system and develop distance education.
Bianchi wants the creation of “a great digital platform, totally dedicated to school education”.
“It will be the basis for a new style of teaching,” he continues. The person in charge also wants to develop teaching outside the classroom. “Trentino (north) will have to take advantage of its forests, Milan its museums and Rome its parks.”
The arrangement of classes will have to be redesigned, with far fewer children, arranged in a semicircle and no longer in rows, he said. And teachers must be revalued.
[ad_2]
