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Italy loosens Europe’s longest lockdown Italy loosens Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown
(about 4 hours later)
ROME — Italy on Monday began a precarious economic reopening after facing Europe's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with people reemerging from their apartments and homes with a mix of relief and apprehension. ROME — Across Rome on Monday, cars wriggled free from spaces they hadn't left in eight weeks. Runners laced up their shoes and headed outdoors. The shutters lifted on restaurants and bakeries, even though it was just for takeout service, and Marco Cecchi, a 52-year-old shoemaker, seeing it all, yelled with joy while walking down the street.
The step out of lockdown was a modest one. Restaurants could reopen, but for takeout only. Funerals could resume, but capped at 15 people. Most significantly, many factories and construction projects restarted, with more than 4 million people — about a fifth of the Italian labor force — returning to their jobs. “Bella Roma!” he cried out, his voice echoing off apartment buildings.
“There will be many more opportunities for possible contagion, which we can only avoid with an even greater sense of responsibility,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wrote on social media the night before the restrictions lifted. It was 6:50 a.m.
Italians were able to reclaim a few basic freedoms — including the chance to exercise outdoors. They could also travel within a region to visit relatives. Monday in Italy was like the first sunny day after a hurricane. The country, with a mix of anxiety and excitement, crept back to life. People were out of their apartments, sharing stories, taking stock of the damage, trying to figure out what comes next. The basic things — like espressos, served exclusively to go by gloved baristas — felt sweet and earned.
Italy, looking to lift lockdown starting May 4, considers advice from scientists, economists and psychiatrists “It’s a feeling of liberation,” said Cecchi, who returned to work for the first time in nearly 60 days.
The steps taken by Italy come as just one part of a broader reopening across Europe. In Germany, several school grades returned to classes on Monday. France plans to restart schooling next week. It was also an experiment, one playing out across Europe. The decisions these countries are making — about what a reopening should look like, and how to balance economic risks with health ones — may influence other nations, as well as U.S. states, on how to move forward while the coronavirus remains a threat.
But it’s hardly a return to normal. In Italy, movement across regions remains highly restricted. Schools, and most retail stores, remain shuttered. There’s a hope that restaurants and bars can resume sit-down service on June 1, but that decision will depend on how the virus progresses in the coming weeks. Italy had one of the West’s strictest lockdowns, so as momentous as Monday felt for many people, the country was merely shifting to a phase that puts it in line with nations under shelter-in-place orders. Retail stores, museums and theaters remain closed. Travel remains highly restricted between regions.
For many, the continued restrictions — and the uncertainty about how long they will last — have sparked signs of frustration. Restaurateurs have worried about running out of cash and closing permanently. The question of how fully to reopen has caused friction between Conte and regional governments, with some demanding a more accelerated pace.
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But Italy is hemmed in by the scale of the outbreak. The country has 100,000 reported ongoing coronavirus cases. A government scientific panel, studying various reopening scenarios, found without school closures and continued widespread telework, Italian hospitals would again become overwhelmed. Italy, looking to lift lockdown starting May 4, considers advice from scientists, economists and psychiatrists
The most significant change Monday came with the restart of factories and construction projects, as more than 4 million people — about a fifth of the Italian labor force — returned to their jobs.
Italy has no plans to reopen its schools until September. But Germany, which has better contained the virus so far, sent hundreds of thousands of students back to class on Monday, in a major and controversial step.
By midmorning, Annedore Brüske-Dierker, director of Theodor Heuss School in central Berlin, already appeared frayed.
“What’s going on here? You need to keep your distance!” she yelled at a group of seniors who had gathered in a small study area. “You have to take this seriously,” she said, ordering four of the group of seven to leave.
Students shuffled into the hall, but not maintaining the required distance.
“Stand 1.5 meters apart!” she chastised.
“You see the problem,” she explained.
The question hanging over Europe is whether the virus will come racing back as restrictions loosen. With its school reopening, Germany is trying to limit the risk by sending only certain grades back to class, by reducing class sizes, by spacing desks apart. Students are attending in shifts, meaning it takes more hours to teach the same number of kids. Teachers over 60 and those with other vulnerabilities are staying home. The Theodor Heuss School simply doesn’t have the staff levels for everyone to come back with distancing rules maintained, Brüske-Dierker said.
Restarting is also nerve-rattling, because of the increased risk it brings.
At a primary school in Prenzlauer Berg, in northeastern Berlin, a mother who had dropped off her sixth grade son fought back tears as she described the fear that her child would infect the family.
Her husband is undergoing chemotherapy for thymus cancer. But she also needs to work, which has been difficult while her two children have been away from school.
“I can’t work with him at home,” said 35-year old Katharina, who didn’t want to give her last name for privacy reasons.
While children seem to be less severely impacted by coronavirus than adults, Germany’s top virologist Christian Drosten has warned that they are equally infectious, citing the preliminary results of a study by his team at Berlin’s Charite Hospital.
Germany has largely avoided the tighter lockdowns seen elsewhere in Europe. Bakeries and cafes have remained open for takeaways throughout. Garden and bike shops were deemed essential business, and there were no restrictions on how long people could enjoy parks and outdoor spaces as long as distancing is maintained.
Nonessential shops, such as clothing stores, began to open late last month, and hairdressers joined them on Monday. But Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the rate of infection will be closely monitored as openings happen, and some scientists argue that school openings are happening unnecessarily soon.
In Italy, which has suffered the deadliest outbreak in Europe, fears about the virus are deeply ingrained. Even as people walked their dogs and shopped for vegetables at Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori on Monday, an ambulance pulled up. A medic arrived at an apartment, dressed in a full bodysuit.
In Italy and across Europe, officials say they are past the peak of the outbreak’s first wave. The number of new cases and new deaths reported each day has been falling. And health systems are able to manage the current load.
Italy’s reopening, though, has largely been driven by economic concerns. The coronavirus has driven the country into a recession.
Rome clothing store owner Fanny Mattera was inside her shop on Monday, sanitizing and cleaning, even though she won’t be permitted to open for another two weeks. She said she had 20,000 euros worth of merchandise and doubted she could sell them at full price.
Several miles from Rome’s center, in a neighborhood of public housing and fascist-era architecture, cafe owner Paolo Soldani, 50, said his area was already in “ruin.” He compared the lockdown to an “economic earthquake.” His four employees were owed a form of government assistance — but they hadn’t received it yet.
“I kept hearing TV stars talking about the need to stay home” during the lockdown, Soldani said. “I wanted to tell them, ‘With your bank account, I’d gladly stay home too.’”
For many, the continued restrictions — and the uncertainty about how long they will last — have sparked signs of frustration, with friction growing between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and regional governments on the pace of reopening.
Restaurants in most parts of the country will have to wait weeks or longer until they can resume table service. In the southern area of Calabria, though, the regional governor said restaurants could restart outdoor table service immediately.
“I have a region without high infection numbers,” the governor, Jole Santelli, said in a radio interview, “and above all I have a poor area.”
Nationally, though, Italy is hemmed in by the scale of the outbreak. The country has 100,000 reported ongoing coronavirus cases. A government scientific panel, studying various reopening scenarios, found without school closures and continued widespread telework, Italian hospitals would again become overwhelmed.
“There is not much room to maneuver on reopenings,” concluded the report, which was shared by the newspaper La Repubblica.“There is not much room to maneuver on reopenings,” concluded the report, which was shared by the newspaper La Repubblica.
As of now, the country plans to restart retail stores, along with museums, on May 18. But experts also worry that the virus could come roaring back. Italy has set guidelines — including the transmission rate of the virus and the regional hospital capacity — that would reactivate lockdowns in emerging hotspot areas. Italy has set guidelines — taking into account the transmission rate of the virus and the regional hospital capacity — that would reactivate lockdowns in emerging hotspot areas.
The peril is most immediate for northern regions, which were the hardest-hit by the first wave of the virus, and which happen to be the most industrialized areas.The peril is most immediate for northern regions, which were the hardest-hit by the first wave of the virus, and which happen to be the most industrialized areas.
“Most of the 4.5 million people returning to work live in the regions where the epidemic is less under control,” said Nino Cartabellotta, a public health researcher who is president of the Gimbe Foundation.“Most of the 4.5 million people returning to work live in the regions where the epidemic is less under control,” said Nino Cartabellotta, a public health researcher who is president of the Gimbe Foundation.
Morris reported from Berlin.Morris reported from Berlin.
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