“I don’t know how long these looser restrictions will last, but I am happy to have some extra freedom for a while,” said Michela Puddu, a Rome resident. “I don’t think we are near the end of the pandemic. My family in Sardinia can attest to that. But I want to enjoy this while I can.”
ROME, April 26 (Xinhua) — Most of Italy reopened for business on Monday after the government dramatically eased coronavirus health restrictions. For many Italians, the change was welcome even if nervousness about the pandemic remained.
As of Monday, 14 of Italy’s 20 regions have been classified as “yellow”, the second least-restrictive level in Italy’s four-color-coded system of regional coronavirus health restrictions. Among them are Lombardy, the region that includes the country’s financial capital of Milan, and Lazio, which includes Rome. Five regions are classified as “orange”, the second most restrictive category, and the island region of Sardinia would remain “red”, the most restrictive category.
Until Sunday, all of Italy had been classified as “orange” or “red”.
Just last month, Sardinia had been the first Italian region declared a “white” zone, virtually restriction-free — an illustration of how quickly circumstances can change in a given region. That was a point brought up by Michela Puddu, a native of Sardinia living in Rome, where she is an administrator in a veterinary clinic.
“I don’t know how long these looser restrictions will last, but I am happy to have some extra freedom for a while,” Puddu told Xinhua. “I don’t think we are near the end of the pandemic. My family in Sardinia can attest to that. But I want to enjoy this while I can.”
In the “yellow” regions, bars and restaurants can re-open as long as customers are seated outside. Museums, archeological sites, cinemas, and theaters can reopen with social distancing rules in effect, and in the case of museums and archeological sites, with advanced reservations. Travel outside of cities and between regions under the “yellow” category will be allowed. But the national 10 p.m. curfew remains in place.
People wearing face masks walk on Via dei Condotti in Rome, Italy, April 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)
The restrictions are being eased as overall indicators such as the coronavirus infection and mortality rates improve compared to their recent highs in February and March, though they remain far above the levels from last summer — the last time the level of restrictions was so low in so much of the country.
According to expert observers, the move to reopen most of the country is a calculated risk by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
“The loosening of the restrictions can work as long as people obey the rules that remain in place, like mask rules, social distancing, avoiding big crowds, and so on,” Massimo Galli, head of the infectious disease section at Sacco Hospital in Milan, told Xinhua. “My big fear is that too many people will think all those means the crisis is over and it’s not. If that happens, we will be under lockdown again within a few weeks.”
For Marco Canali, a sanitation worker in Rome, the eased restrictions will be a chance to see friends he hasn’t seen in weeks or months. He said he knows the risks, and vows to obey health rules, but for him the situation still feels like a breath of fresh air.
“Under the restrictions, the city felt like it was sleeping,” Canali told Xinhua. “It makes me happy to see it waking up a little with these new rules.”
For Silvia Verticelli and Claudia Laurenzo, co-workers at a coffee bar in Rome’s historical center, there are social, psychological, and economic implications that come with the eased restrictions. Before Monday, the bar where they work had been shuttered for more than a month, meaning that neither had a source of income.
“Before, I was at home every day and it was monotonous,” Verticelli, a cook, told Xinhua. “Now at least my time can be split between home and work.”
Laurenzo, a barista, shared the view: “It’s nice to see people again and to have work to do,” she said in an interview. “But it’s also been a very difficult period economically. I have to say it’s good to be earning money again.”
A woman poses for a photo with flowers at Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, April 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)■
