Badly hit Italy begins to grapple with how to ease virus restrictions
European countries are trying to keep people from travelling in sunny Easter weather and grappling with when to start loosening weeks-long shutdowns.
European countries sought at the weekend to keep people from travelling in sunny Easter weather and grappled with how and when to start loosening weeks-long shutdowns of much of public life.
Plans for revival come with the warning from a World Health Organisation official: “The fact of pandemics is that they move in waves, and normally the second wave is more dangerous than the first. Because the guard has been lowered, you think you can return to normal and a heavier blow arrives.’’
Across the Atlantic, the US’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak approached that of Italy, the world’s biggest so far. The US has by far the largest number of confirmed cases, with more than 500,000. As of Saturday, its death toll of more than 18,700 was only just short of Italy’s.
But New York State officials said the number of people in intensive care there had dropped for the first time since mid-March and hospitalisations were slowing: 290 new patients in a single day, compared with daily increases of more than 1000 the week before. Governor Andrew Cuomo said if that trend held, New York might not need the overflow field hospitals that officials have been scrambling to build.
In Asia, South Korea announced plans to strap tracking wristbands on people who defy quarantine orders. The Japanese government appealed to the public nationwide to avoid bars, clubs and restaurants – broadening a measure announced earlier for seven urban areas including Tokyo.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia.
Confirmed global infections have risen above 1.7 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. There have been over 102,000 deaths, and over 377,000 people are reported to have recovered.
Most European countries have imposed shutdowns of various severity. Beautiful weather across much of the continent provided an extra test of people’s discipline on a long Easter weekend like none before.
In Italy, checks were stepped up – particularly around the northern Lombardy region, which has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak. Roadblocks were set up on main thoroughfares in and out of the regional capital, Milan, and along highway exits to discourage people from seeking escape on the holiday weekend.
“This year we cannot gather” for Easter, said the head of Italy’s national health institute, Silvio Brusaferro. “Even if the season is nice and we are tempted by all of our traditions and customs, this is something we need to try to control.”
Spanish police set up thousands of roadblocks around the country to ensure that Spaniards with second residences don’t take unauthorised trips during the holiday.
In Britain, police were urged to keep a close watch on gatherings in parks and at the seaside on what was set to be the hottest day of the year. On Saturday, a motorcycle rider had his bike seized by police after he failed to stop while making a nonessential journey in central England.
With the warmer weather beckoning, Italians are straining against a strict shutdown to halt the coronavirus that is just now showing signs of ebbing at the end of five weeks of mass isolation.
Italy was the first Western democracy to be hit by the virus, and it has suffered the most deaths of any nation: nearly 19,000.
Now it is likely to set an example of how to lift broad restrictions that have imposed the harshest peacetime limits on personal freedom and shut down all nonessential industry.
Right now, schools are closed and children are not permitted to play in parks. Walks outdoors are limited to a distance of 200 metres and any excursion not strictly a matter of necessity risks hefty fines.
The official line is patience with measures that have shown success in slowing the virus spread, until there is a clear decline in the number of new cases. Still, officials have begun grappling with the question of how to manage social distancing on mass transit, re-open ordinary commerce and relaunch manufacturing without risking another peak.
The so-called Phase II is being described as a cautious reopening, as society continues to live alongside the virus until a vaccine can be developed, perhaps in 12 to 18 months.
“We obviously don’t want to delude ourselves that everything will change,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Italians this week.
On Friday, Mr Conte extended the nationwide shutdown through May 3. That includes all nonessential industry, after which, “I hope we can start again with caution and gradually – but restart,” he said.
A technical committee advising the government is working to expand testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. to get a better picture of how widespread it is in Italy before measures can be eased. Preparations are also under way to launch a mobile app that will allow people to know if they have been near anyone who is positive, something that is expected to take at least a month.
“With this you can allow people to have more freedom of movement,” said Walter Ricciardi, a public health expert and member of the WHO board advising the Italian government.
The technology for the app already exists but authorities were working on technical details on how to deploy it.
Experts in Italy are coordinating with their European partners so the tracking can be applied across borders, which have been de facto closed by the virus. The goal is to establish a common technology, which could help in re-establishing freedom of movement between EU nations.
Using the app would be voluntary for anyone wanting to know whether they have come into contact with an infected person that they would have no other way of identifying. Any contacts would be tested, and if positive treated, according to the WHO initiative: trace, test and treat.
Advocates insist that anonymity would be protected and that no personal data would be at risk, likening the app to other widely used applications like Google Maps or TripAdvisor, which help users identify specific data.
Italy’s hardest hit regions in the north are also floating proposals for immunity certificates based on antibody blood tests, which have not yet proved reliable. Virus experts caution that such documents are a long way off.
“The blood test only tells us if the person has been in contact with the virus,” not if the subject is actually immune, said Andrea Crisanti, an expert at the University of Padova who is helping to coordinate the coronavirus response in the northeastern region of Veneto.
Significantly, he said, the tests also don’t show whether antibodies are active, their quantity or how long they might last.
“On a social level, the blood test would allow us to understand to what extent the virus has spread in various sectors of the population and geographical areas, where we could then test to see if the virus is active,” Mr Crisanti said. “We are a very long way from immunity passports.”
Some regions already require facial masks, though not necessarily surgical-grade ones, which remain in short supply. Lombardy, which has born the brunt of the epidemic, has made masks mandatory for anyone venturing outside their home – but due to the continuing shortage, scarves can be used.
Veneto has distributed a basic mask to most households, requiring them to be used in supermarkets and on public transportation.
The mayor of Milan, Europe’s first major metropolis to close because of the virus, is telling citizens that any re-opening could be “stop-and-go,” and is discussing strategies with other European mayors.
Giuseppe Sala said Milan officials are studying how to guarantee social distancing when more people begin to access public spaces, from public transportation to cinemas. Mr Sala is considering having younger city employees return to work first, since they have generally proven less susceptible to the virus. Remote working, where possible, will continue to be encouraged.
“Until we have a vaccine, it will be an anomalous situation,” Mr Sala said. Public health officials warn that the easing phase could prove to be the most dangerous.
“The fact of pandemics is that they move in waves, and normally the second wave is more dangerous than the first, because the guard has been lowered, you think you can return to normal and a heavier blow arrives,” said Mr Ricciardi, the Italian government liaison to WHO.
“We need to be careful and not make vain all of the sacrifices that have already been made. ” The good news is that Italians’ beloved summer holidays don’t appear to be ruled out.
“It will be a summer during which we will have to maintain social distance, avoid gatherings and limit movements. There will not be a lot of facility to travel by airplane or train, where it is difficult to maintain a secure distance,” Mr Ricciardi said.
The number of coronavirus deaths in Spain fell for a third consecutive day on Saturday, with 510 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours — the smallest overnight increase since March 23.
Spain’s total death toll from COVID-19 disease rose to 16,353, the Health Ministry said in a statement, while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 161,852 from 157,022 a day earlier.
The slowdown is an encouraging sign for the country, which has suffered the third-highest number of casualties from the virus after Italy and the US.
At the beginning of April, the overnight death tally rose as high as 950, overwhelming the national health service and forcing regional authorities to set up temporary mortuaries in an ice rink and disused public buildings.
But as the rate of new infections and deaths slows, the government has begun to contemplate a gradual unwinding of lockdown measures, which have kept most people confined to their homes since mid-March.
From Monday, workers in sectors such as construction and manufacturing will be allowed to return to work, though the government extended restrictions on movement across Spain’s land borders with France and Portugal for another two weeks.
The shutdown has caused major disruption to the Catholic country’s renowned Easter celebrations, forcing clergy and worshippers to devise creative ways to participate.
In the eastern town of Villar del Arzobispo near Valencia, priest Raul Garcia held mass with photographs of his parishioners pinned to the pews, and invited them to watch the service online from home.
“It’s a way not to be alone in church and for people to feel like they’re accompanying me during,” he told Reuters Television.
The Easter holidays coincide with mounting hope in Europe of a light at the end of the tunnel as rates of infection slow in many cases.
Some countries are already planning small immediate steps out of the shutdown. Austria aims to reopen small shops on Tuesday.
Spain is preparing to start rolling back the strictest of its measures on Monday, when authorities will allow workers of some nonessential industries to return to work at factories and construction sites after a nearly complete two- week stoppage of industry.
Health Minister Salvador Illa said the government would distribute reusable masks at subway stations and other public transportation hubs on Monday and Tuesday. “We think that with these measures we will prevent a jump in infections,” Mr Illa said on Friday.
Despite mounting pressure from industry, Italy has continued to include all nonessential manufacturing in the extension of a national shutdown until May 3.
German officials are set to consider on Wednesday how to proceed after several weeks of restrictions on public life, currently due to expire on April 19. Officials have been careful to insist they will be cautious, pointing to the risk of undoing the gains the country has made.
“A second shutdown would be hard to cope with, economically and socially,” Winfried Kretschmann, the governor of Baden-Wuerttemberg state, told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Britain on Friday reported a one-day high of 980 new deaths – bigger than any seen in Italy or Spain.
At the same time, data suggest that the number of hospital admissions in Britain shows signs of flattening out.
Meanwhile, in Africa, where virus cases are on the rise, there is fear that the poor health care facilities and a lack of help from developed nations facing their own health crises could lead the virus to spread unchecked.
In Congo, corruption has left the population largely impoverished despite mineral wealth, and mistrust of authority is so entrenched that health workers have been killed during the Ebola outbreak that is not yet fully defeated.
Iran began reopening government offices Saturday after a brief nationwide shutdown to help contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, which has killed more than 4300 people in the country.
Authorities had ordered most government agencies and all non-essential businesses to remain closed for a week after the Nowruz holiday ended on April 4. In Egypt, meanwhile, police used tear gas to disperse a group of villagers who tried to stop the burial of a physician who died from the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus. The villagers feared that the burial would spread contagion.
Government offices outside Iran’s capital, Tehran, reopened on Saturday with a third of all employees working from home, state media reported. Women who have young children were given priority in deciding who works remotely. Businesses outside the capital were also allowed to reopen Saturday, the first day of the work week.
Businesses in Tehran will be allowed to reopen next Saturday, provided they register with authorities and follow guidelines on social distancing set out by the Health Ministry. Government offices in the capital will reopen with two- thirds of employees coming in.
The Health Ministry meanwhile reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll to 4357. Iran has reported more than 70,000 confirmed cases, and authorities say more than 40,000 have recovered.
In China, where the pandemic began in December, the government reported three deaths and 46 additional cases in the 24 hours through to midnight Friday. The number of new daily cases has declined dramatically, allowing the ruling Communist Party to reopen factories and stores.
AP
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