We had said not to let our guard down yet someone, thanks to the warm season and the comforting data of the last few weeks, in which there were more and more Regions with zero contagion, got carried away by enthusiasm. The result is that, as the experts warned above all for fear of a new wave in the autumn, the curve of infections from Covid-19 has started to rise again in almost all of Italy: after the minimum peak reached on 29 June with only 126 new cases and almost half of the Regions with no more cases, for the fifth consecutive day the number of new positives increases and yesterday, Saturday 4 July, there were only 5 Italian Regions without even one case and 235 new cases, practically double five days ago.
The hint of a return of the virus is obviously not only due to the case, which has become famous, of theVenetian businessman returned from Serbia and now in intensive care, after refusing treatment and continuing to meet people for several days after testing positive for the swab. Small outbreaks are also rekindling in other areas: while the situation in Lombardy improves, now they are once again worrying not only Veneto, but also Emilia-Romagna and Lazio (where cases tripled between Friday and Saturday). Precisely the case of the entrepreneur from Vicenza, however, triggered the harsh reaction not only of the governor Luca Zaia, who even spoke of Tso, but also of the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza himself, who announced "a crackdown on those who refuse treatment" and also, in view of the reopening of schools in September, the test for pupils and teachers.
Another decidedly worrying signal is that of the collapse in the sales of masks, a thermometer of the decline in attention on the part of the population. “It is the fault of the politicians who have sent out the wrong messages”, some virologists have accused. The result is that citizens now seem so unafraid that they have even stopped buying masks, reducing sales in pharmacies by two thirds. Not to mention the travel. Not so much those within Italy, which have resumed since the end of May without significant consequences, as the first returns from abroad. European borders reopened a few weeks ago and in a few days it will also be the turn of non-EU ones (although not all, and in any case Minister Speranza has ordered quarantine for those coming from outside).
For this reason, two days ago Zaia and the Emilian Stefano Bonaccini, as president of the Commission of the Regions, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Health asking to be able to swab those returning from non-Schengen countries in certain cases. Already now, as mentioned, on the basis of what was decided by Minister Roberto Speranza, almost all those arriving in Italy from non-European countries must undergo two weeks of self-isolation. The problem though is that the prescription does not apply to foreigners who have work reasons or to returning Italians. This could be the theme of the summer: holidays at risk?
