Italy’s new government, sworn in just days ago, is facing growing calls to change the country’s strategy for dealing with the pandemic, with leading health experts insisting that the current three-tiered system of regional restrictions is “ineffective”.
The government’s technical and scientific committee (CTS) on Monday urged ministers to follow the example of other European countries, such as France and Germany, in implementing stricter measures.
Under the previous government, restrictions in Italy were relaxed in recent weeks.
Health experts said Italy was “bucking the trend” while many other European countries tightened rules amid concern about variants.
The three main variants currently threatening the country are the British, South African and Brazilian strains.
The British strain is set to become the dominant one, health officials said.
New data from the country’s top health agency, ISS, showed that the British variant now represents, on average, 17.8 per cent of new infections in Italy.
Virologist Andrea Crisanti, who is also a member of the CTS, called for “a tough lockdown immediately, to prevent the British variant from becoming prevalent and to prevent it from having devastating effects like in England, Portugal and Israel”.
Walter Ricciardi, professor at Rome’s Catholic University and an advisor to the health ministry, said it is now “urgent” for the new government “to immediately change the strategy to combat Sars-Cov-2”.
“It is clear that the strategy of coexistence with the virus, adopted so far, is ineffective and condemns us to instability, with a heavy number of deaths every day,” he told Italian news agency ANSA.
Ricciardi said the lockdown should be “short but tough” and should include the closure of schools and non-essential businesses.
He also said the measure should coincide with a “strengthening” of Italy’s tracking and vaccination campaign.
Italy’s foundation for evidence-based medicine, GIMBE, welcomed the calls for stricter measures, with its head Nino Cartabellotta telling the media on Monday that “a two-week total lockdown would bring the [contagion] curve down, enabling the resumption of track and trace”.
“[Without a lockdown] the whole of 2021 will be a continuous stop and go of imposing and easing restrictions,” he said.
Some politicians reacted angrily to the calls for stricter measures, with League leader Matteo Salvini slamming “experts who sow fear”.
Italy’s current regional three-tiered system of restrictions was first introduced in November 6 as an alternative to another nationwide lockdown.
In recent weeks many towns and provinces have been declaring their own local lockdowns or high-risk “red zones” in response to spikes in cases.
Italy’s current set of coronavirus rules under the emergency decree is scheduled to be revised by March 5.
There has been no comment from ministers so far on the new government’s planned strategy for managing the pandemic.
However, it did delay the reopening of Italy’s ski resorts on Sunday, a day before they had been scheduled to open for the first time this winter season.
