Stop private parties and more checks. The Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, said this to Fabio Fazio on 'Che tempo che fa' on Rai3. There are some "essential things and others that are not". The minister also explained that there are no conditions for a national lockdown.
"We are forced to tighten the net after weeks of measures that were loosening. A change of pace with specific interventions in some areas most at risk to bring the curve back under control and to avoid taking harsher measures, and to play in advance". Infections in Italy have increased but are lower than other countries. In one day France had +27 thousand infections".
“We will try to impact some parts of life that we consider non-essential. I'll give you an example. We have made a huge investment in schools, money, masks, construction. If by chance there is a party after school hours, everything that has been done is nullified.” Said the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, in connection with 'Che tempo che fa' answering Fabio Fazio's questions. “We will increase checks. I trust parents and I believe that when there is a rule, the vast majority of people will respect the indication. The security key has not helped to bend the contagion curve. Everyone's behavior has. I am sure that this time too we will succeed,” continued Speranza.
“A sign of greater rigor from everyone. For a party you can't apply a protocol. Here comes the ban,” he added. “75 percent of the contagion is happening in family relationships or people we are close to. Unfortunately, however, the virus does not respect the bond of family or friendship,” Minister Speranza explained. Minister Speranza, at the opening of the link with Fazio's program, recalled, on the subject of Coronavirus, how “our numbers are better than many European countries. France has 27 thousand cases in one day, there is a problematic situation in Spain and Belgium.” This general situation “leads to a change of phase. After many weeks, the measures were aimed at widening the network. The next Dpcm will have this meaning, to try to intervene. Let's try to play ahead of the game. If we can raise the level of attention. 75% of the contagions happen in family relationships. “We lower our guard and take off our masks.” Hence the crackdown on private parties, not just among young people, and on gatherings.
The quarantine is reduced to 10 days, with positive cases having to take a single swab to 'get out' of isolation, and the green light is given to rapid tests for close contacts. Masks must also be used for outdoor physical activity, therefore for walking but not for jogging and running. And again: a stop to private parties and more controls against movida, increased use of smart working in the Public Administration. The government is finalizing the measures that will flow into the new Dpcm, confirming the line reiterated several times in recent days by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte: there will not be a new national lockdown but a series of "targeted and progressive" interventions to stop the growth of infections.
The package to be approved by October 15, the date on which the current decree in force expires, ended up on the table of the Technical Scientific Committee in an urgent meeting called by the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza precisely to discuss with scientists and experts and to better define the interventions. Starting from how to strengthen the testing system given that for days now many cities have been experiencing difficulties in carrying out swabs. It was therefore decided to lower the quarantine period from two weeks to 10 days and positive cases, to exit isolation, will no longer need a double negative swab but one will be enough.
A circular from the Director General of Prevention of the Ministry of Health Giovanni Rezza will clarify the procedures. The CTS has identified 4 different types of situations: asymptomatic positives, symptomatic positives, asymptomatic positives who are unable to test negative and close contacts. The former will have to observe 10 days of quarantine, from the diagnosis of positivity, and then undergo a molecular swab; symptomatic people will also have to do 10 days of isolation, but before undergoing the only molecular swab provided for, they must have spent at least 3 days without symptoms. For close contacts, after 10 days of quarantine, it will be possible to carry out the rapid test by general practitioners.
Emergency Commissioner Domenico Arcuri also confirmed it: 5 million antigen tests will be available within a week, "a certain number of which will be available to general practitioners" for this type of diagnosis. The last category are those who test positive and are unable to test negative. For them too, ten days of quarantine and a molecular swab, but the isolation will end in any case after 21 days because after that period of time the viral load is very low. But there are still several issues on the government's table, as demonstrated by the denial by Health Minister Roberto Speranza to a document that has been circulating and which contains a series of "proposals for new urgent measures to contain the contagion throughout the national territory".
“It’s a fake,” says Speranza, but other ministers confirm, speaking of a “working draft” that will only be partially incorporated into the Prime Ministerial Decree. The document does, however, include a series of measures already announced in recent days by various government sources, which were also discussed during the meeting and which will be illustrated to the regions by the Minister for Regional Affairs Francesco Boccia: from those to curb nightlife – the closure of bars, pubs and restaurants at midnight and the stop to the sale of takeaway drinks at 24 pm to avoid people consuming food standing outside the premises – to the stop to mass events and amateur contact sports such as five-a-side football. “We will act on gatherings and the opening hours of venues and on sports where it is not possible to use masks and maintain distances,” confirms the minister, who reiterates the ban on private parties even though not everyone in the government seems to be on this line. The measure should also include the expansion of smart working to 21-60%, to reduce not only opportunities for contact but also travel, while there is still no agreement on a possible further limitation of public participation in sporting events and shows open to the public in theaters, cinemas and concert halls.
The current rule allows for the presence of a thousand people outdoors and 200 indoors and the idea was to halve these numbers. The issue of masks was instead at the center of a circular from the head of the cabinet of the Ministry of the Interior Bruno Frattasi. The ministry in fact specified that they are exempt from the obligation to use them outdoors "only those who are engaged in sports activities and not physical activity, which is not exempted, however, from the obligation in question". A clarification that sparked a series of questions all day on what was meant by physical activity, until the Ministry of the Interior further clarified: "jogging and footing can continue to take place without the obligation to wear a mask", even if done at an amateur level, because they are "attributable to sports activity". The obligation comes into force for those who go for a walk.
Article published on 11 October 2020 - 21:40
