The obligation to show the green pass in social life and also at work will almost certainly accompany Italians also in 2022, at least until March but more likely until the summer. The numbers say that the epidemic is already on the rise in early autumn and in perspective the green certificate according to the Government can still be very useful to keep the virus at bay during the most fearful winter months. But the Executive also aims to extend the state of emergency which will formally end at the end of the year after almost two years of extensions with the first declaration started on January 31, 2020 with the Conte government.
In two months it may be necessary to further extend the state of emergency to keep the commissioner structure led by General Figliuolo in place to allow him to purchase vaccines and medicines (almost 2 billion allocated in the maneuver) and proceed more easily with third doses in the hubs, as well as to extend the life of the Scientific Technical Committee. Two steps – that of the extension of the pass and the extension of the state of emergency – which are announced to be very difficult for the majority and the Executive, a real gallows caudine, given that it will be mandatory to pass through Parliament.
A tortuous parliamentary process
If the government chooses to use the state of emergency also in 2022 it will have to do so with a primary rule, as it will no longer be able to extend the current one with a simple passage to the council of ministers. And this time the landing in Parliament could cause a lot of fibrillation within the majority that supports the Executive.
If for the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza the Government would be ready to decide to renew “without fear” should there be a need, in recent days the leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini instead asked that “with 2021 the need for the green will also be closed pass “. The opinion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Five Stars Luigi Di Maio was quite different, reiterating that to avoid lockdowns and curfews, which are returning to other countries, we must go ahead with the green pass. In short, the passage in Parliament promises to be anything but easy for the Executive led by Prime Minister Draghi who, however, has always pulled straight on Covid so far.
What is worrying about the rest are the numbers of the epidemic which after weeks of relative calm for about ten days are clearly evident: + 40% infections in a week and above all ordinary hospitalizations that start to grow again (+109, + 10% in a week) while intensive therapies move less (+23 in 7 days), but these always increase last. And with Trieste dealing with the infections left by the No Pass protests of recent days. The infection rate has jumped to 350 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 7 days, three times that of the rest of the region. Numbers that bring the city back to the autumn of 2020 and that forced the prefect to ban the demonstrations in Piazza Unità d’Italia at least until the end of the year.