As a third wave of the devastating coronavirus prompts another apocalyptic shutdown across Europe, Italy prepares for a silent, secluded Easter season in lockdown.
In early March of 2020, alarming photos of overwhelmed hospitals and barren streets in Northern Italy drew concern and support from countries across the globe and provided the first glimpse of impending disarray and tragedy for a nation totally unprepared to handle a deadly pandemic. Over a year later, Italy braces for its third national shutdown as cases spike just before Easter season in the heartland of modern Catholicism.
On March 9, 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a nationwide lockdown sending roughly 60 million Italian citizens into quarantine after a startling uptick in COVID cases. For over 2 months, life across the nation was almost entirely halted, and only essential travel for work or health circumstances was permitted. As a result, Italy’s already fragile economy now risks succumbing to a deep recession, a harrowing sacrifice for a necessary preventative measurement which efficiently slowed a massive outbreak. After only a week into the lockdown, Fabrizio Sala, the vice-president of Lombardy, reported a 60% decrease in social mobility as the country slowly began to flatten its steep curve and control the rate of transmission.
On June 3rd, Italy reopened its borders and eased restrictions, but only 4 months later, a second lockdown was imposed after another startling increase in cases. The country was subsequently divided into red, orange, and yellow zones following softer but more comprehensive health and safety decrees aimed at slowing the spread to avoid another major outbreak. A year after its first nationwide quarantine, Italy is finally equipped to battle the deadly virus, and though its cases have been closely monitored and its government has introduced new measurements to keep citizens safe, a new variant of the virus poses another risk to the entire nation, spurring a third rigid lockdown across the peninsula.
Though the most recent Easter lockdown is eerily reflective of Italy’s initial, isolating outbreak with strict restrictions imposed in response to nearly 20,000 new cases a day, the third wave is markedly different with a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus first detected in the UK. Since the initial discovery of the new variant, COVID cases across Italy have grown exponentially, infecting large populations of schoolchildren and threatening the stability of a country which seemed so close to relief and recovery. Once again, the nation is divided into colored zones determined by number of cases per capita, travel is mostly prohibited, social distancing is strictly enforced, and masks are required in public places and even in most outdoor settings as well. Over Easter season, restrictions have been tightened to ensure that citizens stay home rather than meeting in church or in larger groups to celebrate the religious holiday.
As rates of transmission continue to soar, Italian citizens look to the vaccine as a beacon of hope after a tragic, exhausting year, though a slow rollout of inoculations may not offer the fast, preemptive aid required to slow a formidable third outbreak. Plagued by an overabundance of caution, Europe’s vaccination rollout was recently stunted by the suspension of AstraZeneca, creating a supply shortage for countries like Italy.
While only 5% of the national population has received both doses of the vaccine, newly appointed Emergency Commissioner, Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, predicts that 80% of Italians will be fully vaccinated by the end of September. Though the end of a long dark period for Italy as a collective nation is finally in sight, immediate relief does not seem plausible, and with another eruption of cases on the horizon, tired and sequestered citizens bunker down for another Easter season in quarantine.
As summer slowly creeps closer and stir-crazy travelers across the globe anticipate fewer limitations for vaccinated tourists, Italy’s third lockdown suggests another disappointing peak travel season even for citizens no longer at high risk of spreading or contracting the virus. For the second time this year, all non-essential travel in and out of the country is prohibited, and restrictions are unlikely to change until a significant decrease in cases and wider availability of the vaccine provide lasting stability. Italy’s progress is delayed once more as disappointed citizens and government officials put off their hopes of reaching normalcy until the fall of 2021.
With its third lockdown already underway, Italy bears the brunt of a relentless global emergency sending millions back into isolation and creating an untimely contradiction to Easter, a season of rebirth, renewal, and new beginnings.
