Off the masks in bars, restaurants and shops, cheering uncovered at the stadium. For the rest, surgery and Ffp2 will continue to cover the nose and mouth throughout the month of May in the workplace, on means of transport, at school, in cinemas, theaters and concert halls, in hospitals and RSA.
Infections in Italy remain high and the government, while retiring the green pass everywhere from May 1st, has chosen the path of prudence on the masks.
Today the council of ministers will approve an amendment to the decree law of 24 March which traces the road map for exiting the emergency and which is currently under discussion in the Chamber, from where, armored, it will then pass to the Senate. A process that will take another ten days, during which the extension of the masks would remain only on paper. For this reason, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, in the meantime will issue an Ordinance that will extend the obligation to wear a mask at the end of May in many indoor places, where it is easier to transmit the infection.
Even the puzzle on how to behave at work seems to have been resolved with the extension of the obligation, it being understood that the last word will be up to Prime Minister Draghi today, negativised yesterday by Covid, but in recent days with his head on other emergencies, compared to that of the virus. By many, even in the government, it is no longer considered such.
Both in the public and in the private sector, the current security protocols will remain in force for another month, which provide for the use of masks everywhere, whether they are Ffp2 or surgical. So with your face covered you will continue to work in the factory as well as in the bank or in the ministry. And also in shops, bars and restaurants, where customers can enter without wearing protective equipment. This is because the workers exposed to prolonged contact with the public and not customers are at the greatest risk. That maybe at the bar and restaurant they spend most of their time already without while they consume at the table or counter.
Even in schools nothing will change. Until the end of the school year from elementary school upwards, including universities, both teachers and students will continue to do and follow the lessons covering their faces. Also because the closure of the schools is less than two months and the Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi, does not want to run the risk of lighting new outbreaks in the classes in the most delicate phase of the school year. And besides, to prolong the use of masks in this case there is not even a need for a regulation because this was already foreseen by the decree in force.
As the Undersecretary of Health Pierpaolo Sileri recalled yesterday, “hospitals, RSA and transport are the three fixed points for indoor masks”. Which in fact here will remain mandatory for another month. So by train as by plane, ship, bus and metro you will continue to travel with the Ffp2. Which will also be needed to enjoy a show at the cinema, rather than at the theater and in a concert hall. Or to attend a meeting in a sports hall. With your face uncovered from May 1st, you can instead return to cheer at the stadium. A decision that the government would be preparing to take after noting that nowadays no one wears them in the stands anymore.
To understand what will happen in discos, where today they are not worn while dancing but worn in the rest of the time. “When we decide to go back to normal, we must be aware that thinking about the obligation of masks is unreal and utopian inside the discos”, said the other Undersecretary of Health, Andrea Costa, who for the reopening of dance clubs has always fought. It is therefore likely that the obligation will lapse from next month here too.
Where they will stay for patients, their carers and health professionals is certainly in clinics, hospitals and Rsa. Places frequented by the frail, which Speranza wants to protect by asking a small sacrifice to those who are not.