Rome – A year after COVID-19 hit Italy, more than half of the country’s residents would be put back under hard lockdown restrictions from Monday, March 15, at least until Easter. Restrictions are tightened in response to yet another surge in cases – Italy is entering a third wave of coronavirus infections.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at a vaccination center near Rome’s Fiumicino airport that “measures are needed to prevent a deterioration that would make even tougher measures inevitable”.
However, he promised they would be accompanied by financial support for families and businesses, “as well as the acceleration of the vaccine program, which alone gives hope for a way out of the pandemic.”
MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP / Getty
Italy was the first country in the world to implement a nationwide lockdown last winter, when it was the nation at the epicenter of the pandemic. Since then, the disease has been responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 people in the country, just a few weeks ago seemed to bounce back, albeit gently
National vaccination coverage is low: only 8% of Italians have had at least one first shot, compared to about 19% in the US.
Italians are getting tired and frustrated by the delay. The country’s vaccination campaign began in late December, but like other European countries, it has experienced delays in the distribution process.
This week, the country banned the use of a specific batch of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine after reports that several people in Sicily died shortly after receiving it. However, there is no evidence that the vaccine caused their deaths.
Concerns about blood clots in people who have had the much-used AstraZeneca injection, similar pauses for its use have been caused in a handful of other countries, but European officials as well as the makers of the vaccine insist that there is no evidence of a link between the vaccine and the vaccine. blood clotting.