ROME – With the arrival of summer, on June 21, Italy could be all in the white zone and on the same day it could say goodbye, at least outdoors, to the use of masks, one of the symbols of this year and middle of pandemic. The weekly monitoring data confirm the decline in the spread of the virus and for the first time, if maintained over the next three weeks, indicate a certain date in which the whole country will be free from the restrictions that have marked the days of Italians since last October.
The analysis of the control room is clear: the index of spread of the infection – the Rt, which no longer counts for color assignment purposes – is at 0.72, down from last week. And above all, after months the incidence is finally below 50 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants (it is at 47): it means that health systems are able to carry out an efficient tracking of cases and their contacts, thus limiting the spread of Covid. Not only that: the pressure on hospital services is well below the critical threshold throughout Italy (14% of places occupied in the medical area and 15% in intensive care) and all regions have a low risk. A framework that, already on Monday, will allow Friuli Venezia Giulia, Molise and Sardinia (which have an incidence of 17, 12 and 13 cases respectively per 100 thousand inhabitants) to pass into the white zone. The Minister of Health Roberto Speranza has signed the ordinances and in the three regions there will no longer be a curfew and all the activities that were scheduled to restart between 1 June and 1 July will be able to reopen: indoor restaurants and bars, weddings, fairs, theme parks, conventions and congresses, indoor swimming pools, spas, amusement arcades, bingo and casino, recreational and social centers, public and private training courses, indoor sports competitions. On the other hand, the activities of the discos and dance halls remain suspended.
Reopening that will overlap the first real bridge – that of 2 June – with the whole of Italy on the move, as had not happened since last summer. Millions of Italians, according to Federalberghi will be at least 9, will take advantage of the Republic Day to allow themselves a few days of vacation, even if the weather forecasts are not promising. In the same situation of Friuli, Molise and Sardinia from 7 June Abruzzo, Liguria, Umbria and Veneto, which are in the second consecutive week with white data, while from 14 June it will be up to Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Puglia and to the province of Trento, which for the first time this week have an incidence of less than or equal to 50 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants. In yellow, therefore, only 7 regions will remain – Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Marche, Sicily, Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta – and the province of Bolzano, which today have an incidence between 79 cases in Valle d’Aosta and the 53 of Sicily. But if the decline of the virus continues at the pace of the last three weeks, from the next monitoring these will also have data from the white area and, therefore, will be from 21 June.
One day, the first of summer, which could also be the good one to say goodbye to the outdoor mask. There is still no certain date but the experts have repeated several times that with the arrival of the hottest season it is conceivable to set aside its use. The president of AIFA and member of the Scientific Technical Committee Giorgio Palù stressed it today: “it will be a summer without outdoor masks, but it will be good to keep it indoors”. And it is precisely on the use of devices indoors that the controversy of the day breaks out, after the indications of the CTS contained in the guidelines of the Regions regarding catering, where it is stated that “customers must wear a mask to protect the respiratory tract except in moments of drinking and eating ». It is a “ridiculous measure and without any foundation, I believe that Draghi should consider the hypothesis of eliminating the CTS” attacks the leader of the Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni to which Matteo Salvini replies. “There will be no masks at the table, we eat and you drink ‘unmasked “says the leader of the League. In reality nothing has changed compared to the guidelines in force since March of last year: you sit at the table with a mask, which can be removed when sitting down to eat and drink and must be put back to go to the bathroom, to pay the bill or in any case whenever you get up from the table. The clarification also comes from the CTS spokesperson Silvio Brusaferro: “closed environments favor the transmission of the virus and for this reason there is it is a need for conscious behavior and common sense “.