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Covid Monitoring: “Serious Situation, Stay Home”
An acceleration for a national tightening, perhaps already during the weekend. It is not only the increasingly urgent request that comes from scientists, the Minister of Health, the Democratic Party. But it is the decision that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte would be making at this time. For the prime minister For now, the total closure must be excluded and the blockade of schools and production activities denied.
The attempt is to further prune leisure and travel, with the hypothesis of a national curfew and the bars and restaurants close at 6 pm: essentially ensuring that citizens travel during the day just to study and work. The most rigorous wing of the government no longer excludes even a confinement, for a limited time of two or three weeks and with a new massive injection of aid to the economy.
From the Palazzo Chigi they deny that the idea is on the table: they don’t talk about it. They add that so far all hypotheses are just suggestions. In addition, having the schedule of the new dpcm has not yet dissolved the reserve, neither with the ministers nor with their collaborators: they spend the day studying and discussing, based on the data. Meet Commissioner Domenico Arcuri and read numbers and analysis of the weekly follow-up from the Higher Institute of Health and the Ministry of Health. It also weights the economic data and the measures that would serve to compensate for the new restrictions.
It is not certain, they explain from Palazzo Chigi, that he decides to intervene from the weekend. But now everyone considers that an acceleration is inevitable: ministers and local authorities are expected – and expect – a call in the next few hours. As the experts suggest in their weekly monitoring, to smooth out a curve that has almost touched the threshold of twenty thousand infections, we must drastically reduce the physical interaction between people. But since Conte firmly excludes both the blockade and a strong blockade of productive activities, we must look at the “nonessential.”
There would still be gyms and swimming pools at the sights, despite the updated protocol with even stricter measures to avoid closure. And then the galleries and shopping malls, especially crowded on weekends. As for bars and restaurants, the attempt is to avoid hitting an already well-tested sector again, but a new night-time squeeze seems likely. We discussed the schedules: it would be of little use to bring the closure from 24 to 23, now we would be considering a curfew from 21 or 22.
But the idea with the most effects, according to experts, could be to close bars and restaurants at 6 in the afternoon: without an aperitif. Lighten public transport, is the main concern in these hours, in addition to strengthening the tracking system of the infected. But it is precisely in transport and schools where a rebound between ministries is taking place that for now has also slowed down the call for the meeting with the hypothesized Regions to harmonize regional measures.
Lucia Azzolina is on the barricades in defense of face-to-face teaching, supported by Luigi Di Maio and the M5: you get infected on buses and subways, not in class, they insist. Paola De Micheli defends the quota measures already adopted and resists the pressure from the Cinco Estrellas to lower the capacity from the current 80%. Sure, a new grip would bring a massive strengthening of smart work. But at that point, Democratic sources claim, distance education should also increase, starting from high school.
Regarding travel, there is a debate about whether, given the spread of the virus, intervene preventing moving from the Regions: they are more likely to give instructions to limit unnecessary exits as much as possible. To complicate the work of Conte, there is a diversity of vision of the majority parties that is open.
They go from Italy alive, which is against the closure but also against the curfew, to Pd and Leu, with Roberto Speranza, who push to intervene immediately and ask the Italians for that greater “sacrifice” that can block the curve and also saving Christmas: the Democratic Party is ready to support drastic decisions, is the message of Nicola Zingaretti. The M5 is taking a more cautious stance, but it would be ready for another intervention. The front, however, in comparison with the first phase of the contagion is increasingly flaky, the accusations against the government by the same majority increase. This factor also runs the risk of influencing decisions for the next few hours.
