Coronavirus, the government wants the extension of the state of emergency until January 31: here are all the consequences

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The government has decided. He intends to ask the Chambers for a 3 and a half month extension of the state of emergency “We will go to Parliament to request the extension of the state of emergency until January 31” (that is, exactly one year from the first application of the measure after the pandemic, ed), Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told reporters on the sidelines of the visit to the ‘Francesco Gesuè’ secondary school in San Felice a Cancello (Caserta). Currently the extension expires on October 15 but the persistence of the emergency has suggested to the experts of the CTS (Scientific Technical Committee) to extend the time of the state of emergency.

The file ended up at the table of the meeting of heads of delegation with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte held after the Cdm of September 30. And an idea was launched by the Head of Delegation of M5S Alfonso Bonafede: a TV marathon to invite Italians to download the Immuni application, the usefulness of which the head of delegation Pd Dario Franceschini would have also emphasized. Regarding the extension of the state of emergency, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, who reiterated his line of “maximum prudence”, announced that he will be in the Chamber at the beginning of the week, to discuss it in Parliament. Where the opposition, opposed to the extension to October 15, could express strong reservations about this new extension.

Extended emergency extension until the end of January

Given the increase in infections, especially in the central-south, with an autumn-winter that promises to be especially difficult, the line of an extension of no more than two and a half months seems to have ended in the minority, as happened last time ( July 30-October 15), and that it would coincide with the end of 2020. It did not seem plausible to expect the end of the state of emergency on New Year’s Eve. Hence the idea of ​​extending the extension until the end of January. A month that presumably would coincide with the arrival of the first doses of the vaccine, which, however, will only be available for a carpet distribution from late spring. The hope was also explicit: “We must resist with the knife between our teeth in these difficult 7-8 months that await us – he said – but while we resist we must also look to the future.”

The consequences of smart work to tampons

Until then we will continue with the “exceptional” measures: from the widespread use of smart work, to accelerated purchases of goods to deal with the pandemic (masks, gowns, benches on wheels, etc.) led by Commissioner Domenico Arcuri, whose powers will be “saved” only with the extension of the state of emergency. Among other things, Arcuri needs time to make sufficient purchases of diagnostic kits (including rapid ones, recently approved by the CTS and the Ministry of Health for schools). Not only. In addition, the extension of the state of emergency would also allow, among other things, to extend the rules that currently impose a hyssop obligation for those entering Italy from Croatia, Greece, Malta, Spain and France (limited to the Auvergne-Rhône Regions ). -Alps, Corsica, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, New Aquitaine, Occitania, Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur).

The role of the Dpcm and ordinances

The current situation, which the Government is asking to extend, allows to act in derogation on many aspects of public life thanks to the issuance of the Dpcm (the decrees of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers) and the orders of the Minister of Health. Decrees of the Prime Minister, the Dpcm, cannot be issued except in a state of emergency. In this regard, on October 7, even before the state of emergency, the Dpcm expires with the indications of the measures to contain the infection: from the use of masks, to the distance, to the local transport capacity, to the closure of discos. and stages. This does not mean that the measurements are the same. In the stadiums, as is known, a close confrontation is taking place between governors, who are inclined to reopen access, although limited to a quarter of the capacity, and the Government, with the Minister of Health who has already expressed his opposition, supported also from the monitoring of the ISS (Higher Institute of Health), which asks that the measures not be relaxed, authorizing, for example, “events and initiatives at risk of aggregation”.