ROME (AP) – Italy entered a three-day nationwide coronavirus blockade on Saturday to discourage Easter travel and meetings, even as the country’s increased supply of new infections began to decline .
The government announced last month that it would place all regions in the strictest blockade of the “red zone” over the Easter weekend to limit the chances of contagion, taking the same precautions it has implemented at Christmas and New Year.
Travel between regions and visits to relatives were limited to Monday. Non-essential shops were closed, and restaurants and bars were open only to be picked up.
“People are tired, but they are aware that protecting health is essential these days,” said Major Fabio Palletta, a Carabinieri military police officer who is hosting a checkpoint in Rome on Saturday, one of many set up across the country this weekend for make sure people on the roads were allowed to travel.
The Interior Ministry has also ordered additional police patrols to break into large gatherings in squares and parks, which are usually full of picnics at Easter.
“I am just happy to be checking. It means that something works in all this mess, “said Amato Monatanari, who was drawn for a check in Rome.
Italy, where the outbreak of Europe began, recorded more than 110,000 COVID-19 deaths, more than any other European country except the United Kingdom. Another 21,000 infections were reported in Italy on Saturday, along with 376 deaths.
It is estimated that 87% of the latest cases in Italy were followed by the highly contagious variant first detected in the UK. But the Ministry of Health reported on Friday that, for the second week in a row, new cases had “slightly diminished.”
But because Italian hospitals in most regions are still well above their COVID-19 capacity in both intensive care units and other wards, the ministry concluded that the new infections were still “too big … to allow any reduction of the current restrictive measures ”.
However, Italians are upset over the country’s prevented vaccination campaign, which, despite promising to give priority to the elderly, has left behind many of Italy’s oldest and most vulnerable people, while teachers, police officers and other professional workers put their feet up.
The Lombardy region, the largest in Italy, suffered more COVID-19 infections and deaths than any other, but still had a hesitant vaccination campaign, winning a personal visit this week from the new tsar of the Italian virus, General Francesco Figliuolo.
“There are things that are not going well,” Figliuolo said. “We’ll write them down and then fix them together.”
More than three months after Italy’s national vaccination campaign, Lombardy opened a new centralized meeting portal this week, after its previous system sent elderly people hundreds of miles from home to get a job. jab and left others unable to settle.
Attilio Fontana, the regional governor of Lombardy, acknowledged “some difficulties”, but insisted that they had no impact on the overall vaccination campaign. He said the criticism of the regional effort was “nausea”.
Italy has administered 10.8 million vaccines nationally, although only 3.3 million of the country’s 60 million people have received both doses. Lombardy, which counts one-sixth of the population and has long been proud of its health system, has administered 1.7 million doses.
On Saturday, in Sicily, a church temporarily opened its doors to become a pop-up vaccination center.
“For those who are Christians who celebrate Easter, today means especially being a good and honest citizen,” said Father Michele Viviano, pastor of the Salesian parish of Don Bosco in San Gregorio di Catania, Sicily.
“It also means cooperating with, participating in and organizing the immunization campaign,” he said.
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