Italy needs new curbs during holidays to avoid 3rd Covid-19 wave, PM Conte says

The government in Italy is considering new restrictions during the holiday season to slow the spread of the coronavirus and try to avoid a third wave, PM Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday.

The ruling coalition may impose stringent rules across the country for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, as crowds flooded Rome over the weekend after some restrictions put in place last month had been relaxed.

“Further, new restrictions are now needed… we must avert at all costs a third wave, because this would be devastating, also from the point of view of the loss of lives,” Conte told La Stampa.

A vaccination campaign in Italy would have to target 10 to 15 million people in order to “have an effective impact on immunity,” Conte said. He explained that this goal could be reached by the end of the spring or before the summer.

Conte has already tightened travel rules for the period straddling Christmas, New Year’s, and Epiphany. People across Italy are not allowed to travel between regions except for work or urgent reasons from December 21 to January 6. During the holidays, Italians can’t leave their towns, and they are being urged to avoid gathering in large numbers indoors.

As of Tuesday, Italy, where the continent’s pandemic began, has reported 1,855,742 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 65,011 deaths. On Sunday, Italy surpassed the United Kingdom to become the European country with the highest official coronavirus death toll. On that day, another 17,938 infections were reported, and 484 deaths, although it was one of the lowest one-day death counts in the country in about a month.

The highest number of new infections is registered in the northern region of Veneto, while Lombardy has the highest number of cases and deaths overall.

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