Coronavirus: Italy takes back “control of the pandem …

All regions of Italy left the “red zone” on Monday, the highest level of risk according to the circulation of Covid-19 cases, and some commercial and cultural activities will resume, including the opening of visits to Vatican Museums and the Colosseum in Rome, with limited capacity.

Despite the restrictions, Italians, who have recorded 2.5 million infections and 88,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic, are once again going to sit in bars to drink a cappuccino. The authorities however demanded that the guard not be lowered so as not to lose “control of the pandemic”.

Most parts of the country will revert from today to the “yellow zone”, the lowest level of restrictions, which maintains the ban on travel to another region and continues with the curfew of 10pm to 5pm, while bars and restaurants will continue to close at 6pm.

Only Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily, Umbria and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano will have a higher level of restrictions according to the limitations of the “orange zones”.

In the regions which remain in “yellow”, cultural life will have a respite, after the closure of cinemas, theaters and museums since October. Although a large influx is not expected, the Vatican Museums and some archaeological sites in Rome are open, such as the Colosseum, which was closed for three months.

After 87 days, the Flavian Amphitheater of the Colosseum welcomed with the music of Bizet, Puccini and Verdi the visitors who decided to visit its ruins, who were able to listen to the performers of the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome from the lodges and points view of the historic monument.

From today it is possible to return to the permanent exhibition which tells the story of the Colosseum or to look at views of its central arena, which for the moment will not be accessible. Starting today, you can also visit the Ara Pacis Museum, which will host the only stop in Italy for the Roots exhibition, by Czech photographer Jousef Koudelka.

In addition, the museums will recover the temporary exhibitions that were affected by the November closure, including the “I Marmi Tarlonia” or “Il tempo di Caravaggio” exhibitions in the Capitoline Museums.

With my guard

The change in alert status and the reopening of certain tourist areas is linked to the fall below 1% in the rate of contagion R. On Sunday, the lowest toll of the last three months (237) was recorded, although the Italy has been maintaining 12,000 and 15,000 infections per day for several weeks.

Neither the number of patients with COVID-19 (22,311) has increased in recent days, nor that of inmates in intensive care (2,215), but they have also not decreased significantly, which generates some fear at the authorities.

According to an Italian secret service report, coronavirus infections in Italy are said to be 50% more than those recorded and reported daily.

The government-appointed Commissioner for the Emergency, Domenico Arcuri, stressed that “the virus continues to circulate” and reminded the public: “If we pretend that nothing has happened and that we are witnessing the scenes of agglomerations that we have seen, we will lose control of the epidemic again. ”

A warning also issued by the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza: “The yellow zone does not mean that there is no danger. We must still be extremely careful if we do not want to reverse progress made in recent weeks. “

The delay of the vaccination campaign crosses Europe

As in the rest of the continent, the vaccination campaign has not finished progressing in Italy due to delays and organizational problems.

To date, nearly two million people have received the first dose (1,962,967) and the second dose, which guarantees total protection, 621,579, far from what was expected and without mass vaccination of over 80s .

Today there will be a new meeting between the government and the regions to revamp the vaccine plan after the delays in the production of Pfizer-BioNTech and the approval by the AIFA (Medicines Agency) of the drug produced by AstraZeneca, more suitable for children under 55.

“We are working with a program which provides for 11,200,000 vaccines, against 28,000 million initially planned, or 60% less than planned,” Arcuri confirmed.