As Germany, France, Spain, NZ Reenter Full Lockdown,WaPo Criticizes Italy For Not Doing So

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Italy, resisting another coronavirus lockdown, shows peril of piecemeal restrictions

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The team of city police officers had been assigned to look for coronavirus rule-breakers, so one evening last week, they parked their cars in the middle of one of Rome's liveliest neighborhoods and walked from one restaurant to the next. In 90 minutes on patrol, they didn’t find a single violator. What they found, instead, was nightlife that conformed to the rules but nonetheless posed risks for spreading the novel coronavirus...The country had banned dining in groups of seven or more, but there were plenty of tables of four, five and six under mood lighting on the cobblestone streets.

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At the beginning of the pandemic, Italy was a lockdown pioneer — the first among democracies to control the virus by ordering life to a standstill. But as a second wave of the virus explodes, Italy and other countries across Europe have been reluctant...and so they are now demonstrating the perils of an alternate strategy.

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experts say it’s hard to know which combination of targeted measures will be sufficient. Given the incubation period of the virus and the lag time between the onset of symptoms and when somebody might get tested, it can take 15 to 20 days to get a sense of whether restrictions are helping. By that time, the virus may have raced further out of control, with serious consequences for the health system.

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Walter Ricciardi, the World Health Organization adviser to the Health Ministry, said in a TV interview that the latest measures are “not enough” and that Italy would need restrictions in proportion with the “uncontrolled” spread in some parts of the country.

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More covid-19 patients are in Italian intensive care units than on the day in March when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called for the initial lockdown.

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Many workers have returned to their offices. Even as Conte was announcing the latest measures Sunday afternoon, outdoor tables were packed with people sharing late lunches and early cocktails. Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan, said even that kind of permitted socializing was enabling the virus to spread. “Once you lower the mask to grab a bite, you’re doing something risky,” he said

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Industry associations have been lobbying the government not to clamp down too hard, and an attempt to reintroduce first-wave restrictions in the southern region of Campania illustrated the political risks of going too far. On Friday, the regional governor, Vincenzo De Luca, had called for a lockdown, saying his area was on the “verge of tragedy.” But after a night of violent protests in Naples, he appeared to back away from his pledge.

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