Five Regions "promoted" with a change of color but no exceptions for restaurants at Christmas. These are in summary the decisions taken by the Government to organize emergency management in the coming weeks, those leading up to the Christmas holidays. Meanwhile, as was in the air and as the presidents of the Regions in question had been waiting for days, the green light has arrived for Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria, which pass from the red zone to the orange zone, and for Liguria and Sicily, which from orange become yellow. This means that starting Sunday 29 November in the territories that enter the orange band, the shops will be able to reopen until 21, to dilute attendance) and the second and eighth graders will return to school.
However, this will not be the case, throughout the national territory, for restaurants and high schools. The latter will remain in distance learning until January 7, while this year, it is now official, no dinner away from home, neither at Christmas nor on New Year's Eve: bars and restaurants, as is already the case now, will have to close at 18 pm and remain completely closed on 25 and 26 December. The holidays will therefore be armored, and the Government is thinking - for the decree that will enter into force on December 3 - a tightening also on the possible exceptions: confirmed the stop to travel also between the yellow regions, the curfew from 22pm to 6am (the situation for the nights of the 24th and 31st to be assessed, but the orientation is not to allow relaxation), the mandatory quarantine for those returning from abroad and no skiing on the Italian slopes. The only exception: the return home of the residents.
So the rigorist wing of the government wins, choosing to follow the indications of the Technical-Scientific Committee to the letter. For the experts the country's epidemiological situation does not allow for easing. The advice is to hold on, whatever the cost, because the impact of the virus on regional health systems is still too strong and the risk of a dangerous "trend reversal" compared to the slight improvement in recent data is too high.
