Italy prepares to reopen, despite warnings from scientists “Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata

ROMA – Italy to ease restrictions from April 26, a reopening that will be maintained as infections are brought under control, government says, as scientists warn there is a risk the epidemiological curve will increase .

“Any growth on the curve will be seen after two or three weeks. When you relax the limits, it is normal for the epidemic to increase again, unless external factors intervene, such as the expansion of vaccination, ”explains the head of Prevention of the Ministry of Health and member of the Scientific Technical Committee (STC), Gianni Rezza, in newspaper statements The Republic.

Rezza believes that currently the trend of the curve is downward but warns that Italy continues to have a “fairly high” incidence, with “180 weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants” and “the ICUs are still congested”.

“We still have over 300 deaths and 15,000 cases per day, we are reopening at a time when the curve is declining slightly. The risk is there. For an epidemiologist the acceptable risk is zero, for an economist it may be 100, for those who have a business and have closed it an even greater number. It is legitimate for politics to strike a balance, after which no one can rule out that by reopening schools and other activities, the curve will rise again, ”he adds.

However, the Under Secretary for Health Pierpaolo Sileri also points out this Sunday in the newspaper The imprint that “the reopening is irreversible” and that the executive will not have to close again because “the vaccination campaign is progressing” and the results obtained in countries like England or Israel.

He recognizes that going back to school can cause “an increase in infections” and that there will come a time when there will be “many more infections among the very young and under 55, simply because they are not. not yet vaccinated “, but if the elderly are protected” the risk is minimal “.

Finally, he is in favor of maintaining the curfew until 10 p.m., despite criticism from far-right La Liga leader Matteo Salvini, who also supports Mario Draghi’s executive and who has demanded that ‘he is eliminated for being late.

Italy will embark on the long-awaited path of reopening on April 26, with the return of schools and sectors that can be developed outdoors to avoid the virus, such as gastronomy, with the intention of making it definitive .

The qualification of “yellow zone”, that which presents the lowest epidemiological risk, will be recovered, and the regions which enter it will again be able to raise the blind in their restaurants and bars, for lunch or dinner, provided that this either in the open air.

The measure, although welcome, is insufficient for the workers of the gastronomy and this Sunday a group of chefs and businessmen from the Umbrian region decided to cook in a peaceful and symbolic demonstration, near the house of Draghi in Citt… della Pieve, to make the government aware of the difficulties this gastronomy is going through, hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

EFE.