Julio Algañaraz
03/27/2021 12:55
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/27/2021 12:55
The government of
Italy
has launched a tough
quarantine
throughout April.
Only schools will be reopened to 5.3 million students and the national priority is to double the number of vaccines applied to the population from 240,000 to half a million to tame the coronavirus pandemic that is wreaking havoc in a few months.
In the final three days of Easter week, from April 3 to 5, Italy will become a
"red zone"
extended to the entire national territory and in the rest of the month
harsh isolation and immobility measures
will be applied
to a country divided into twelve “red” and eight “orange” zones, with different degrees of high risks.
The rigor was approved by Prime Minister Mario Draghi on the basis of indicators and epidemic curves managed by the institutes that monitor the pandemic and that indicate the spread of variants, such as the most contagious and lethal English call, that have given life to the called
Third Wave
.
The measures applied in recent weeks have failed to decrease below 22,000 infected each day and a balance of
between 400 and 500 deaths a day
, which threatens to collapse the hospital system.
The increase in younger patients has brought the number of hospital bed occupants to 23,472 patients,
above the
levels considered critical
.
In addition, the number of patients being intubated and undergoing serious resuscitation in intensive care has risen to 3,628, which is close to the record of 4,003 registered a year ago when the pandemic began, which has so far cost more than 106,000 deaths in Italy.
Some scientists maintain that there are "small signs" of decreasing levels of contagion, while other specialists fear that new mutations of the viruses derived from Covid-19 will cause a sudden and significant increase in deaths and illnesses in public hospitals.
The Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Draghi (right) and his Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, this Friday, after a press conference to announce the new restrictions due to the coronavirus.
Photo: AFP
Accelerate vaccination
The only global and effective response to the worsening of the pandemic is to
accelerate mass vaccinations to the maximum
, to reach the levels of the United States, Great Britain and Israel, which have managed to inoculate a large part of the population.
In Italy this Saturday more than nine million vaccinated, of which 2.9 million have received the second dose that completes their immunization.
General Francesco Figluolo, an Army logistics specialist, who is deployed throughout the country with hospitals, six hundred military doctors and thousands of nurses, said as responsible for the massive campaign that the arrival of millions of vaccines from North American laboratories is being rapidly regularized. Pfizer and Moderna and the British AstraZeneca, the only three vaccines accepted by the European Union so far.
Several convention centers in Rome became venues for vaccination against the coronavirus.
Photo: AP
Three million more vaccines will arrive next week and another 40 million doses will arrive in the rest of April.
New vaccination centers
are opened practically every day
in hospitals, large railway stations, airports and cultural centers such as the Auditorium of Rome.
An extra vaccination shift runs from this Saturday at the Fiumicino international airport, in the capital, until midnight, every day of the week.
"Our absolute priority is to reach half a million daily injections, which will guarantee us within four or five months a victorious initiative against the virus," explained Health Minister Roberto Speranza, justifying the rigorous measures that will be applied in April to contain the advance of the pandemic.
Immunization amid the chaos
Since this week, it has been reorganizing itself
in some regions where chaos and slowness have prevailed
in the computer systems of shift reservations and vaccination of the elderly over 80 years of age and of groups that suffer physical handicaps and diseases that turn into a moral trap to infections with the virus.
A vaccination center against the coronavirus set up in a museum in Naples, Italy, this Saturday.
Photo: EFE
Groups of doctors and nurses aboard ambulances travel through provincial cities vaccinating in their homes those who cannot reach the inoculation centers.
In the coming weeks
, 20,000 pharmacies
, 60,000 family doctors from the national health service and a similar number of dentists
will join the injection centers
to participate in the vaccinations.
Good news reinforced the downcast spirits of the Italians.
Scientific studies showed that the epidemic curves of healthcare personnel, who were vaccinated with priority, already clearly demonstrate a
reduction in infections and deaths
.
The vaccination center at Fiumicino airport in Rome now runs until midnight every day.
Photo: EFE
The restrictions
Nine regions suffer the greatest restrictions and another eleven have better epidemic rates, which allow, for example, the reopening of hairdressers and other businesses.
But the government kept bars and restaurants practically closed.
A
strict curfew applies
throughout the country
between 10 p.m. and 5
a.m.
The inhabitants of the red zones must remain in their homes and justify the exits.
Those in the orange areas have a little more freedom of movement, but all must remain in their municipalities.
The Lazio region, whose capital is Rome, managed to go from "red" to "orange" when the indices showed that it registers a significant decrease in the Rt1 index of infections.
The 9.1 million primary and secondary students
will return to schools after the armored Easter
, from April 6.
But only 5.3 million that span up to the first year of high school will be admitted “in presence” in school buildings.
The older ones should continue with Distance Didactics, attending the lessons through the Internet.
The authorities indicated that on the march, the cases of improvement or worsening in the regions will be decided in April, or the creation of mini red zones when infections break out that will be contained with
complete isolation in the areas declared of pestilence
.
The specialist Professor Roberto Cauda, head of infectious diseases at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, said that if the strategy works and it is possible to vaccinate 25 or 30 million Italians in the coming months, “we will have a normal summer and we will be able to take vacations at open air, always maintaining prudence measures ”.
Rome, correspondent
CB