There is Covid-19 fatigue among Italians more than one year after the country became the most seriously affected by the pandemic in Europe.
A new wave, caused by the new more aggressive variants, has seen infections soar to more than 25,000 daily cases being reported over the weekend.
Hospitals across the country are struggling with an increase in admissions of Covid-19 patients into intensive care units.The daily death toll continues to be in the hundreds.
The Italian government has been forced to announce new closures starting on Monday to rein in the numbers.
Eleven regions—including those containing Rome and Milan—were classified by Health Minister Roberto Speranza as high-risk red zones from Monday, with all residents told to stay home except for work, health or other essential reasons.
The extra restrictions will last until Easter, according to Prime Minster Mario Draghi’s office. During the Easter weekend of April 3-5, the whole of Italy will become a red zone.
All other regions will be in medium-risk orange, meaning museums, restaurants and bars are closed but schools remain open. Only Sardinia escapes restrictions, designated a low-risk “white” area.
“I’m aware that restrictions will have consequences on the education of your children, on the economy and on everyone’s mental health,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during a visit to a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Friday.
Draghi said more than 150,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the last week, up from just under 131,000 recorded the week before.
Triple the number of vaccinations
Italy’s vaccination campaign has been hit by delays and only around three percent of the populations so far has received their inoculations, a number which is far too low. “Italy is administering about 170,000 doses a day. Our aim is to triple that,” the prime minister announced.
As concerns over the slow rollout of the vaccine mount in the country, Draghi said, “It is only with widespread vaccinations that we will be able to do without restrictions like the ones we have had to adopt.”
He admitted that Italy is facing a new wave of contagion and such restrictions are needed to avoid a worsening of the situation.
The Italian government has said it hopes to have 60 percent of the population vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of July reaching the first threshold for herd immunity and 80 percent by the end of September.
Draghi recently appointed a new special commissioner for coronavirus in Italy, army general Francesco Figliuolo who released a national plan which aims at administering 500,000 doses of vaccine a day at full capacity.
Italy has registered more than 3 million cases of coronavirus and over 101,000 deaths since the outbreak in the country emerged in February last year.
