Once again, we have been asked to stay home as much as possible and avoid contact with people because of Covid 19.
Here in Europe the second wave is hitting us pretty hardly and the governments are responding with lockdowns, restrictions and a wide range of measures.
As of last week, Italy has been divided into three different areas: yellow, orange and red.
At first, Liguria was supposed to be classified as orange (which means medium risk) but, in the end, it was included in the yellow regions, among those at moderate risk.
The decision taken by the Minister of Health took the vast majority of Ligurians by surprise, convinced by now that, given the constant increase in cases and the heavy load on emergency rooms and hospitals, the region would have ended up at least in the orange zone.
After the amazement was overcome, irony was unleashed since many people find this subdivision rather useless and nonsense.
The owners of shops, bars and restaurants have protested about the delay with which the news was given and about the ways in which colors were assigned to the various regions. In the orange and red regions in fact bars and restaurants must remain closed at all times while in the red regions also shops must stay closed.
In Liguria, since we are yellow for now, we must follow the following rules:
- we can freely move around our region from municipality to municipality and go to other yellow regions too
- we have a curfew from 10pm to 5am during which it is forbidden to leave the house except for work, health or emergency reasons always motivating everything by signing a self-certification in case of police control
- shopping centers are closed on weekends
- high schools only offer online lessons whereas all other schools are open for classes
- museums and exhibitions are closed as well as theaters and cinemas
- gyms and sporting centers are closed
- bars, restaurants, pastry shops and cafés stay open until 6pm and afterwards can only remain open for take-away and delivery services
But experts say that Liguria could soon join the orange area.
Also the Governor of our region, Mister Toti, expressed his doubts about the government's decision and said that he had doubts about the choice to put Liguria among the Regions in the yellow zone due to the Covid risk. The pressure on hospitals, especially in the metropolitan area of Genoa, is very strong, because the number of infections is very high. But we also have a contagion index that is going down.
If we were to change to an orange area that would mean that we would only be allowed to move within our territory of residence (or domicile), although it would be advised to avoid unnecessary outings. The restaurants and the bars would be closed for lunch as well as for dinner as they are now nationwide.
Inside the red area any movement is forbidden, both in the same Municipality and towards neighboring, with the exception of movements motivated by proven work needs, situations of necessity (for example purchase of necessary goods) or health reasons.
In the red areas all shops (except for those selling necessary goods like supermarkets and pharmacies) will remain closed indefinitely as well as bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters, cinemas, spas, cafés, etc….but with the exception of hair salon which are allowed (for some unknown funky reason) to remain open in all regions and areas.
Let’s hope to remain yellow and to get rid of this virus soon!