From Reuters:
“Italy locks
down financial capital Milan and much of industrial north”
Italy’s latest
restrictions to try to rein in the coronavirus include a partial lockdown of
its richest and most populous region Lombardy around the financial capital
Milan, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday. Earlier, the government
published its new package of measures which toughen up nationwide curbs and
divide the country into three zones - red, orange and yellow, according to the
intensity of the epidemic. The zoning depends on a raft of factors including
local infection rates and hospital occupancy, with restrictions will calibrated
accordingly. In the critically affected red zones people will only be allowed
to leave their homes for work, health reasons or emergencies and bars,
restaurants and most shops will be closed. High school classes and those for
the final two years of middle school will be moved online. However, unlike
Italy’s national lockdown in the spring, all factories will remain open. “Our
intensive care capacity could be exhausted in a matter of weeks, we have to
intervene,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at a news conference to
illustrate the package which comes into effect on Friday.
Conte said the
red zones would comprise the large northern regions of Lombardy and
neighbouring Piedmont, along with Calabria in Italy’s southern toe and the tiny
alpine region of Valle D’Aosta. Lombardy accounts for around a sixth of Italy’s
population and more than a fifth of its gross domestic product. The orange
regions, where shops will remain open and people can move freely within their
towns and cities but not leave them, are Puglia in Italy’s heel and the island
of Sicily.
The rest of the
country’s 20 regions, including Lazio around the capital Rome, will be yellow,
meaning there are no restrictions other than those imposed nationwide. Italy
saw 352 COVID-related deaths on Wednesday after registering 353 the day before,
the health ministry reported earlier, while the daily tally of new infections
rose to 30,550 from 28,244. Under the nationwide restrictions regardless of
zoning, restaurants and bars must close at 6 p.m., cinemas, restaurants,
museums and gyms are all closed and shopping centres are closed at weekends. All
high school classes are to be held online, while younger children will still be
allowed to attend school in person.
^ This is how it
started in Italy during the 1st Wave – they shut down the North - I think we will soon see all of Italy shut
down again. ^
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