Lombardy curfew aims to curb Covid hospital admissions rise

Authorities in Lombardy have been given the green light to impose a curfew as the Italian region braces itself for a surge in hospital admissions.

The curfew, which will run from 11pm until 5am, is expected to begin on Thursday and be in place until 13 November. Most medium and large shopping centres are expected to be ordered to close at weekends, although there will be exceptions for shops selling food.

The measures in Lombardy, where coronavirus infections are escalating again after the region was badly hit by the first wave of the pandemic, were requested after experts said admissions into intensive care units could leap to 600 by the end of the month from the current 113. General hospital admissions are poised to rise to 4,000 from 1,136.

Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan, said the situation in Lombardy, where 1,687 of Italy’s 9,338 new cases were recorded on Monday, was “explosive”.

“A curfew in Lombardy is necessary,” Pregliasco, one of the experts who urged authorities to adopt the measure, told Cusano Italia TV.

Pregliasco said that 70% of infections were occurring within family settings, where people tend to “let their guard down”.

“In the summer too many messages made the community think that the emergency was behind us,” he added. “This virus has the peculiar habit of causing trivial illnesses and for this reason it manages to be pervasive, through those who are asymptomatic.”

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New infections are growing at the fastest rate in Milan, Lombardy’s capital and economic hub. A Covid hospital at a conference centre in the city has been reopened in anticipation of admissions by the weekend.

Lombardy suffered a brutal first wave of the pandemic and accounts for over 17,000 of Italy’s 36,616 deaths.

The president of the southern region of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, said he will follow in Lombardy’s footsteps and request a curfew. “From 11pm on Friday everything will close in Campania,” he said.

De Luca originally planned for a curfew from 31 October — Halloween — an event he criticised last week as “a stupidity from America”.

Campania is not far behind Lombardy with new daily infections, registering almost 1,600 cases on Monday. Luigi De Magistris, the mayor of Naples, said he expected Campania to soon go into lockdown, while criticising the regional administration.

De Luca’s re-election as regional president in September was mostly due to his successful handling of the first phase of the pandemic in what is Italy’s most densely populated region, and one of its poorest.

Campania declared itself Covid free in June but cases started to rise again in August.

De Luca closed schools last week, less than a month after they reopened, and recently banned medics from speaking to the press unless they had permission from the regional administration.

“I think very serious mistakes were made by the region and that’s not passing the buck,” said Magistris, warning that there were just 15 places left in intensive care. “The infection numbers speak for themselves.”

Alessio D’Amato, health councillor for Lazio, the region surrounding Rome where cases are also rising quickly, said hospitals were not prepared for a massive second wave and that the curfew should be extended nationally.

Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, was accused of passing the responsibility of curfews on to the country’s mayors, who since Sunday have the power to close squares and stop socialising from 9pm. Some mayors argued that they don’t have the police forces or finances for the measure to work.