ROME (AP) – Italy on Saturday entered a three-day coronavirus blockade nationwide to deter travel and Easter meetings, even as the rise fueled by variants of the country in new infections began to wane.
The government had announced last month that it would place all regions in the strictest closure of the “red zone” over the Easter weekend to limit the chances of infection, taking the same precautions it applied at Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Trips between regions and visits to relatives were limited to Monday. Non-essential shops were closed and restaurants and bars were only open for takeaway.
“People are tired, but they are aware that health protection is essential in these times,” said Major Fabio Palletta, a carabinieri military police officer who commanded a checkpoint in Rome on Saturday, one of many established in the country this weekend to ensure people on the roads were allowed to travel.
The Interior Ministry also ordered additional police patrols to break up large gatherings in squares and parks, which during Easter are usually full of picnics.
“I am just happy to have them checked. It means something works in this whole mess, “said Amato Monatanari, who was arrested for checking in Rome.
Italy, where the outbreak in Europe began, has recorded more than 110,000 deaths from COVID-19, more than any other European country apart from Britain. Another 21,000 infections were recorded in Italy on Saturday, along with 376 deaths.
It is estimated that 87% of the most recent cases in Italy date back to the highly contagious variant first detected in Britain. But the Ministry of Health reported on Friday that, for the second week in a row, new cases had “slightly decreased”.
But as Italian hospitals in most regions still exceed their COVID-19 capacity in both intensive care units and other wards, the ministry concluded that the new infections were still “too high … to allow any reduction of current restrictive measures “.
Italians, however, are upset by the country’s stumbling vaccination campaign, which, despite promising to prioritize the elderly, has left behind many of Italy’s oldest and most vulnerable people while teachers, police and other workers professionals receive their blows.
The region of Lombardy, the largest in Italy, has suffered more COVID-19 infections and deaths than any other, but has still suffered a a hesitant vaccination campaign, which got a personal visit this week from the new tsar of the Italian virus, General Francesco Figliuolo.
“There are things that don’t go well,” Figliuolo said. “We’ll write them down and then fix them together.”
In addition to three months of the national vaccination campaign in Italy, Lombardy opened a new centralized dating portal this week after its previous system sent seniors hundreds of miles home to get a punch and leave others without prior appointment.
The regional governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, acknowledged “some difficulties”, but insisted that they had not affected the global vaccination campaign. He said criticism of the regional effort was “disgusting”.
Italy has administered 10.8 million vaccines nationwide, although only 3.3 million of the country’s 60 million people have received both doses. Lombardy, which has a 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 an emerging vaccination center.
“For Christians who celebrate Easter today, it means above all being a good and honest citizen,” said the Rev. Michele Viviano, rector of the Salesian parish of Don Bosco in San Gregorio di Catania, Sicily.
“It also means cooperating with, participating in and organizing the vaccination campaign,” he said.
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