Rome — Now when you turn on the news in Italy Rebroadcast from March. Pictures of COVID-only units, field hospitals, exhausted medical staff and coffins are again dominating the headlines as Italy catches the second deadly COVID-19 wave. On Wednesday, the number of deaths exceeded 125 for the first time since May, when the country is still in severe blockade and is considered a harbinger of things to come.
What is particularly troubling about the recurrence of COVID in Italy is that Italy has done everything that experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have advised. Face masks in public places have been mandated for several months, social distancing has been strongly enforced, nightclubs have not been reopened, and sports arenas are less than 1/3 of their capacity. Children who return to school are regularly tested and strictly socially distant, but the second wave seems completely unstoppable.
While excluding another complete blockade, Italian health authorities are instead urging people to limit their movements, but growing concerns have inadvertently encouraged private parties that now seem to be the worst outbreaks. The Italian Ministry of Health released data this week that 80.3% of new infections occur “at home,” while only 4.2% occur in recreational activities and schools.
On Wednesday, Italy recorded 15,199 new infections. This is almost three times more than the worst day of the pandemic in March, and the per capita infection rate is equivalent to 90,000 cases per day in the United States. I have yet reached.
And it’s getting worse and worse. “Some metropolitan areas like Milan, Naples and Rome are already out of control in terms of epidemic control.” Said in “Their numbers are too high to be included with traditional tracking and testing methods. And, as the previous epidemic teaches us, it must be mitigated when it cannot be suppressed. In other words, you have to block the movement.”
To some extent, the increase in cases is associated with aggressive testing plans in Italy. In addition to state-run drive-in facilities, Italy’s aggressive testing plan has opened the way for quick and easy diagnosis at all airports and private clinics. Private technologists also made more cases by calling home for about $75 to do the test in the privacy of the home. Nearly 180,000 tests were reported on Wednesday, a record recorded over a 24-hour period.
However, authorities are concerned that despite their best efforts to contain the spread, it simply cannot be stopped. Government experts argue that student transmission rates are not the driver. But young people who are convinced that it won’t be very sick and insist on getting together socially can. Now, major cities such as Milan, Rome and Naples have evening curfew hours to prevent social gatherings of young people, which appears to be contributing to the spread. Richie Ardi said most of the epidemics that occur in multi-generational families originate from young people.
It is by no means only Italy fighting the second pandemic in Europe. France, Spain and the Czech Republic all broke records in new cases and introduced measures to mitigate the spread. The UK is also recording new infections in one day. Ireland is completely closed.
Germany, which avoided most of the major problems during the first European wave, reported a shocking number of new infections, surpassing 10,000 in one day on Wednesday. Authorities have also criticized groups of young people going out or meeting privately. Lothar Wieler, president of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the DW network that it was not a problem for people to go to work. “We don’t happen that much at work or in public transport, but most of us come together at privacy, parties, services and weddings,” he said. “We shouldn’t have too many of these events.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who is very concerned on Wednesday, spoke to the Italian Senate, convinced that the entire shutdown, which paralyzes the economy and destroys the tourism sector, will not be repeated. Urging ordinary citizens to limit unnecessary travel, he has not mandated restrictions on travel at this time. “We can’t use the same strategy to confront the second wave as we did in spring,” he said. “Now we are in a different situation than what was in March. At that time, we had no means to diagnose. Now we are more prepared thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of everyone.”
But for many, the sacrifices that helped in the first round seemed in vain.