Italy’s government announced on Wednesday that citizens will not be able to travel throughout the country during Christmas, angering regional leaders who said the new effort to contain the coronavirus’s spread goes too far.
© Alessandro Serranò/Getty
The Italian government issued a new decree on Wednesday, stating that citizens will be prohibited from traveling through Italy’s 20 regions during Christmas. In this photo, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte holds a press conference to announce a new emergency decree on COVID restrictions, at Palazzo Chigi, on November 4, 2020 in Rome, Italy.
From December 21 to January 6, no Italian citizen will be able to travel among the country’s 20 regions except for work, medical reasons or emergencies, the government order said.
On Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, residents will not even be permitted to leave their specific towns. Those who live in small towns or villages within walking distance to the next will still be banned from leaving their own town limits.
-
Sean Hannity Suggest Joe Biden Is On Top Of ‘Crime Family’ That Includes Nancy Pelosi And CNN
Fox News host Sean Hannity has once again mocked up a “crime family” graphic, this time targeting Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
Newsweek
-
Joe Biden’s History-Making Communications Team Gets Reactions From Both Sides
Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Sunday announced the first-ever all-female White House senior communications team. Most members of the new team have previously worked for Biden and other Democrats. The announcement came with a widespread of reactions with most praising the all-women team. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary in Donald Trump’s administration, dismissed the reports that this was a historic first move, tweeting that Trump already has an all-female senior White House press team.
Newsweek
-
The Heaven’s Gate Cult
What’s the dress code for a mass suicide? The occasion calls for some level of formality, but one doesn’t want to overdress. Twenty years ago, the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult chose fitness-goth. When the bodies of 39 members were found in a suburban mansion in San Diego, California, on March 26, 1997, they were wearing matching outfits: bodies covered in purple shrouds, black shirts and sweatpants, patches reading “Heaven’s Gate away team” and black-and-white Nike Decade sneakers.The 39 bodies discovered that day weren’t really dead, according to cult doctrine. They had merely left their “vehicles” and traveled to the “next level,” or “the evolutionary level above human” (TELAH), escaping a soon-to-be “recycled” Earth. Journeying to TELAH was the long-term goal of the cult, which started in the ’70s, and in 1997 the members finally grabbed their chance. Their leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite (aka Do) claimed that behind the approaching Hale-Bopp comet was a spaceship that would take their souls. All they had to do was hitchhike by suicide.On March 24, 1997, members took turns eating pudding and applesauce laced with phenobarbital, all of it washed down with vodka. They then put plastic bags over their heads to asphyxiate themselves.
Newsweek
UP NEXT
The order adds that travel to “second homes located in a region or autonomous province other than one’s own” will be prohibited.
In response, regional leaders issued a joint statement saying that they had not been consulted on the new order and that “the lack of discussion has made it impossible to balance the curbs with the needs of families,” Reuters reported.
“These families must remain divided even at Christmas. This is yet more proof that the government does not know Italy,” said Matteo Salvini, leader of the country’s rightist League opposition party.
Attilio Fontana, the governor of the northern Lombardy region, which has reported the most coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths in the country, also attacked the order.
“Reading an unexpected decree that bans movements between towns in the same region on Dec. 25, 26 and Jan. 1…is crazy,” he said.
The government has also implemented a nationwide 10 p.m. curfew, which means the Christmas Eve Mass, traditionally held at midnight, must be held earlier in the evening.
“It will be a different kind of Christmas. Sacrifices are still necessary in order not to expose ourselves to a third wave in January with a high number of deaths,” said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Italian television last week, according to the Italian edition of The Local.
The new decree is just one part of a set of efforts that the government was expected to announce on Thursday. Additional measures could include implementing a 10-day quarantine for those traveling to Italy from foreign countries, as well as strict recommendations to limit the number of guests during Christmas celebrations.
“A free and democratic state cannot enter homes and say how many people can sit at the table,” Conte said Tuesday, according to The Local. “There will be limitations on social occasions in general.”
An increase in new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations has slowed throughout the country in recent weeks, but Italy is still reporting the highest daily death rates of any country in Europe.
Italy was the first epicenter of the pandemic in the West. So far, it has reported over 1.6 million coronavirus infections and 58,038 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
“With the next emergency decree, we must continue with serious and rigorous measures,” said the country’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, in an address to Parliament on Wednesday.
“We still need a few weeks of sacrifices,” he said. “The [contagion] wave is still high, and our navigation remains difficult. Let us not be under any illusions.”
Related Articles
Start your unlimited Newsweek trial