Italy is preparing to allow social activities and leisure only to those vaccinated against the coronavirus

The government of Italy is preparing to approve today more restrictive measures for the management of the pandemic in the face of the increase in infections of coronavirus, among them the mandatory nature of the vaccination certificate or of having overcome the disease to be able to enter restaurants and entertainment venues, while the presentation of virus detection tests will continue to be allowed to travel and work.

During this morning a meeting of the so-called control room is scheduled, with the experts in charge of managing the pandemic and the council of ministers, on the anti-covid measures that will be implemented to counter the fourth wave. In the afternoon, the Executive will meet for approval.

The main measure to try to counteract the “fourth wave” that begins to be noticed in Italy, although still with numbers lower than the rest of European countries, it is the so-called “Super health certificate”, a document that will only be given to vaccinated people who have passed the COVID-19 and that will be used to access the closed rooms of restaurants, cinemas, theaters or sports events.

Currently in Italy for any activity and even access to the workplace the health certificate is valid, which can also be obtained with a negative antigen test valid for 48 hours.

With the new “super health certificate” it is intended to encourage vaccination among the nearly 7.5 million Italians, especially in the age group between 40 and 60 who have not been immunized.

According to the data this Tuesday, the new positives to the coronavirus were 10,047 positives in the last 24 hours and 83 deaths were registered with a positivity rate of 1.4%. While the patients in intensive care units with coronavirus are 560 patients, 11 more than the previous day and those hospitalized with symptoms are 4,597 more than on Monday.

The situation is more critical in the Alto Adige region (north), where the obligation to wear masks abroad has been reintroduced and nightclubs have been closed, while restaurants and bars must do so at 6:00 p.m. (17.00 GMT) due to the increase in infections.

Another measure under study is to reduce the duration of the health certificate, which would go from the current 12 months to 9 months, although some in the scientific community press for a duration of 6 months. The Government thus intends to accelerate the booster doses in the population.

The Ministry of Health has already adopted reducing the interval between the conclusion of the vaccination cycle and the third dose from 6 to 5 months.

The obligation of the third dose for health professionals and staff of expert residences, as well as law enforcement and public administration employees or teachers, will also most likely be approved.

While the debate is also open on the validity of the duration of the tests, among the scientific community there are those who argue that it should be reduced from 48 to 24 hours for antigen tests and from 72 to 48 hours for molecular tests.

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