Coronavirus in Italy: curfew and new health collapse | the Chronicle

the Italian government decided this Monday to classify as “orange zone” Yes prohibit internal travel and restrict commercial activity in five other parts of the country to try to stop the spread coronavirus.

Based on the assessment of 21 health indicators from last week, The Ministry of Health has decided that the regions of Veneto, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria will pass from this Wednesday of “yellow zone” a “orange zone”, the governor of Abruzzo reported on Monday Marco marsilio in statements to the public broadcaster RAI.

Thus, the five regions join the island of Sicily and southern Puglia in the second risk rating, which already encompasses more than a third of the country’s population.

The regions in “orange zone” They are also prohibited from moving among themselves, according to the latest decree of the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Since last week, the Government has divided the 20 regions of the country into three zones, on the basis of a criterion of 21 indicators analyzed by the Ministry of Health, to avoid falling into a new generalized quarantine at the national level .

In addition, a night curfew has been introduced, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., for the whole of Italy and the obligation of distance courses for secondary and higher education.

The regions of Lombardy, Calabria, Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont have already been classified “Red zone”, which means the closure of its borders and the suspension of catering activities, among other measures.

Puglia and Sicily, for their part, have been designated “orange zone”, while the other 14 in the country, including Lazio and its capital Rome, had until today entered the definition of “yellow zone”, or low epidemiological risk.

With Monday’s decision, people at intermediate risk in Italy would drop from the current 8,976,706 to 24,497,669, or more than a third of the country’s population.

This Monday, by finalizing its decision on the regions, the health ministry has reported 25,271 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the first time it has recorded less than 30,000 since last Wednesday.

According to official figures as of Monday, with 147,725 tests performed nationwide, the positivity rate reached 17.1%, up from 16% at the weekend.

Health authorities have also reported 356 coronavirus victims in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 41,750.

Early in the morning, moreover, the Autonomous Province of North Bolzano announced via its institutional website that it declared itself “Red zone” after an increase in cases over the weekend, including 583 positive today with 2,241 tests carried out, with a positivity rate for the coronavirus of 26%.

Doctors warn of further health collapse

The President of the National Federation of the Italian College of Physicians (Fnomceo), Filippo Anelli, He called on the government to shut down the country completely given the current state of hospitals which are starting to collapse due to the number of coronavirus patients.

Anelli warned that “if we take this week’s data as a typical trend and project it without anticipating further increases, the situation in a month’s time will be dramatic and therefore we must immediately resort to a full shutdown. “

“Either we block the virus, or it will block us because they warn us that the system does not hold and even that the now yellow regions will soon find themselves in the same conditions as the most affected areas”, Dijo rings.