Less than 6 thousand cases, intensive care and hospitalizations still in decline and, for the first time in seven months, the number of victims for Covid in Italy in 24 hours that falls below one hundred: 93 are those registered in the bulletin of the Ministry of Health, yet another sign of the decline in the spread of the virus but above all of the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing hospitalizations and deaths.
The data will arrive on the table of the control room that will be there in the next few hours at Palazzo Chigi
: if confirmed in the coming weeks, they will lead to the cancellation of the curfew, one of the most significant and controversial measures of these months. "With the data improving - says Health Minister Roberto Speranza - we can relax and then overcome the curfew".
For now, however, we will proceed following the line of gradualness and prudence, as the Prime Minister Mario Draghi repeated several times and as Speranza himself confirmed today also in light of the gatherings that continue to be recorded in the cities, especially in the nightlife areas as shown by the images of Rome and Naples: "we must continue with reasoned confidence towards the gradual reopening of other activities and this is possible thanks to the measures adopted in recent months, the correct behavior of the majority of people and the vaccination campaign ".
The coupon to the decree in force should therefore lead to a new provision which will be operational from 24 May and which will rewrite a whole series of rules and restrictions. The first is, in fact, the one concerning the curfew: the indication was to postpone it to 23 but it is not excluded that it can be brought up to midnight given the pressing of the center-right and the regions. A new check will then be done at the beginning of June and that could be the occasion to permanently cancel it. "It is realistic to assume - says the Minister of Regional Affairs Mariastella Gelmini - that it will be reviewed in the coming weeks". But the summit among the group leaders of the majority will also deal with something else given that, as the leader of Forza Italia in the Chamber Roberto Occhiuto reiterates,the center-right continues to ask for "real openings" for all sectors, especially those that do not yet have a date to be able to start again. And Matteo Salvini raises the stakes again, calling a videoconference of the League before the government meeting. "We expect reopening and restart, work and freedom, outdoors and indoors, day and night".
The government should therefore also decide on the reopening of shopping centers on weekends (May 22 or 29)
, that of indoor swimming pools, which could be June 1 together with gyms, and the recovery of the wedding sector. The date could be around June 15 and it is not excluded that the wedding is the first activity in which to experience the green pass, the certifications that already allow you to move between regions of different colors. Those who want to participate in a banquet must have a certificate of vaccination, a cure or a negative swab carried out 48 hours before the ceremony. Nothing should change, however, as regards the date of the restaurants indoors: they will be able to reopen starting from June 1st; however, it is possible that the government decides to allow the activity also in the evening while at the moment the decree sets the opening from 5 to 18.And if the ban on consumption at the bar counter will probably be overcome, the date for the restart of the fairs (June 15), congresses and theme parks (July 1) should not be changed.
This is because the government, the president of the Higher Health Council reiterated and coordinator of the Cts Franco Locatelli, still wants to have a full picture of the effects of the reopening of April 26, which will only be available starting from next Friday's monitoring. It is obvious, however, that, as for the curfew, a new check will be made at the beginning of June also for these sectors. And that could always be the time for the executive to tackle another issue, that of the use of the mask outdoors, which has already been raised by many. At the moment, Locatelli said clearly, "it is too early to remove it, today the choice is not conceivable". But, he added, "the time will come when we could abandon it". It won't be early June,but it is by no means excluded that with the arrival of summer - when half of the population will be vaccinated with at least one dose - after the curfew even the most worn object by Italians in this last year can become a memory.