“With more than 2300 in intensive care, the government is ready for a new blockade in Italy”

If the number of ICU patients exceeds 2,300, the government is ready to shut down. In other words, the closure of everything that is not essential and the prohibition of moving between regions as in March. Fiorenza Sarzanini at the Corriere della Sera He writes today that for now the executive chooses to proceed gradually with the goal of keeping productive activities and schools open. But if the escalation of positives continues and, above all, of those hospitalized, he is ready to change gears.

The government: will be closed if …

The threshold set by the executive is 2,300 people in intensive care. And now, with the numbers growing, we must go ahead with progressive closures: the first will be the red zones in the big cities like Rome, Milan, Naples and Genoa plus Turin. For the rest, the monitoring of the Rt index by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità is expected. Well aware that the worst of cases is to have a contagion index level higher than 1.5 for three consecutive weeks. Yesterday there were 926 hospitalized in intensive care, almost double than the previous week. If the growth rate were to stay at these levels, ten days would be enough to cross the threshold and reach the lock.

The figures produced by the Ministry of Health leave no room for doubt: if the weekend data had suggested a slowdown, the registry of tampons (more than 177,000) registers an incidence compared to new cases equal to 8.5%, lower other countries, but growing compared to last week. Situation that the government faces with local authorities, regions and municipalities in particular, thanks to a protocol of specific initiatives, as has already happened with Lombardy and Campania that have implemented the first curfews, followed also by Piedmont, Liguria and Lazio. What worries the experts, in fact, are “some metropolitan areas like Milan, Naples and probably Rome – said Walter Ricciardi – already out of control”, have “figures too high to be contained with the traditional method of test and trace” . In these cases “we must block mobility. We are in Venice as in 1400, despite the technologies that we have at our disposal.”

Big cities out of control: the red zone hypothesis and self-certification in Rome, Milan, Naples and Genoa

“With more than 2300 in intensive care, the government will close in Italy”

Meanwhile, there is already talk of the closure of some activities such as game rooms, gyms and swimming pools. Even if in the last two cases the Nas checks have shown compliance with the protocols. And even if, in the meantime, measuring the temperature and staggering the inputs might be mandatory today. Then there are the shopping centers. Some governors have already decided to keep them closed during the weekend, where the movement of people is greatest. If the epidemiological curve continues to increase, the government could extend this measure to the entire national territory. However, leave grocery stores and pharmacies open, as Lombardy has already done.

The next steps will be the curfew at 11 pm or midnight and the ban on moving beyond regional borders, which would affect, for example, the more than 10,000 travelers who arrive every day from Campania in Lazio. Meanwhile, the Ansa news agency writes that before news of new measures already at the weekend, from the Palazzo Chigi and the ministries they assure that there is nothing in preparation for now, but they also add that it cannot be excluded having to intervene ” in the next”. weeks “: it depends on the epidemiological curve. A decision will have to be made during the weekend about the closure of the gyms, which Vincenzo Spadafora opposes but which seems inevitable for other ministers.

It is in the “sphere of social and recreational relations” that, Conte explains, the focus was on national restrictions, with the cessation of parties and limits on restaurants. At this level, according to more than one minister, more could be done to avoid having to close schools and offices. But the call to limit “unnecessary travel” could, according to some sources in the majority, clearly denied by the government, in the coming weeks become a veritable ban on travel between regions.