ANSA: New lockdown will be necessary without action - Rezza
ROME. KAZINFORM Gianni Rezza, the health ministry's prevention director, on Tuesday warned that a new nationwide lockdown will be necessary without strong action to prevent contagion of COVID-19.
«I receive slightly threatening emails that blame the health (measures) for slowing the economy,» Rezza told a news conference.
«But what is slowing the economy is the virus, not the measures, ANSA reports.
On the contrary, the partially restrictive measures, like the ones we have now, have kept circulation low and made activity possible.
«If no measures are taken, in the end we will be forced to have a general lockdown, which is what you want to avoid».
He said it was «too soon» to say whether the government will be able to press ahead with its plan to reopen Italy's high schools after the Christmas holidays.
High-school students are currently doing class via distance learning but the government intends to have them back in school physically for 75% of the timetable in the new year.
«The incidence of cases is still very high and it is difficult to talk about reopening activities until we lower the incidence,» he said.
Today's (COVID) data was mixed with over 14,000 new cases and a ratio of positive cases with respect to the total of under10%.
«But the figure for the number of deaths, 846, is really high.
This tells us that the number of people to get infected over the last two to three months is high, with a significant revival of the epidemic».
He added that Italy remained above the critical threshold for the number of intensive-care places occupied by COVID-19 patients.