Contagions increase in Italy and army prepares for second wave of coronavirus
"Europe is getting worse and the risks of a second wave are more concrete," warns Professor Fabrizio Pregiasco, virologist at the University of Milan. The autumn colds that will begin in September, favor the pandemic thrust. The government confirmed that danceable night venues will continue to be banned and especially the massive attendance of spectators in stadiums to sporting events, especially football, which awaited the lifting of restrictions for the coming month.
But the biggest expectations are focused on reopening schools and universities. Students are scheduled to return to schools on September 14. The country will be in vilo by then because the topic mobilizes most Italians, which includes teachers, teachers, school staff and millions of family members.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte reiterated: "It is our commitment that the schools that are being conditioned will be reopened. There's no doubt about it. Only a new, very strong wave of contagion could prevent it, but I don't even want to think about this eventuality."
Social bubbles and no toys from home: How Italy will reopen kindergartens
Under-6s returning to preschool in September won't have to wear face masks but can't mix freely with their schoolmates, according to guidelines from the Italian Ministry of Education.
Xinhua Headlines: Countries facing COVID-19 resurgence swaying between premature reopening, preventive measures
As for Europe, Spain, Belgium, Italy, France and Britain, which are among the continent's worst-hit countries, are suffering increases of cluster cases, though not as seriously as in March and April.
Italy’s schools are set to welcome students next month, but first they need millions of new desks
The request for proposals is marked "extremely urgent," and it lays out the details of what the Italian government is looking to buy: single-seat children's desks to replace the traditional two-person desks to allow the country to start the new school year with social distancing. But the request is a titanic one. The government wants a rush order, everything built and shipped within the next month. And it wants an extraordinary quantity — 3 million new desks, as many as all the Italian school-furniture companies put together would normally build in five years.
Europeans Say COVID-19 Revealed America as 'Fragile,' Inconsiderate
Italy now sees about 150 to 300 new cases nationwide each day, down from the 6,500 daily the country recorded on March 21. In the U.S., there are about 54,000 new cases a day — which is a higher number proportionally when its larger population is factored into consideration.
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Doctors throughout Italy, where the virus killed more than 35,000 people and ravaged towns between late February and April, say the country's strict nationwide lockdown was a major factor in beating back its spread. Additionally, Italian government officials on both the national and local levels worked primarily in lockstep as they conducted widespread testing, robust contact tracing and a slow process of reopening.
Schools in Europe Reopen With Little Debate—but More Masks and Distancing
…In Italy, which has had 35,231 deaths from the virus by Friday, according to government data, polls show that a majority of parents support schools reopening. Unions also favor in-person learning, but are pushing the government for extra safety measures. Italian authorities are considering moving lessons to larger spaces, such as gyms, courtyards or even museums, to space out students. High schools may require some students to follow lessons remotely, while others attend in person. Italian authorities also have plans to shut down again, and return to remote learning, should new infections significantly increase.
Italy to test teachers for covid-19 before schools reopen
Italy is to make two million covid-19 tests available for teachers, janitors and school staff between 24 August and 7 September, one week before the scheduled reopening date of 14 September, reports Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Face masks, smaller classes and distanced desks: Europe’s back-to-school plan
…Italian schools are set to reopen on September 14 after staying closed for six months. Staff will have to wear masks, and the government will decide in the last week of August whether children older than 6 will also need to do so. Classes will be smaller to allow for social distancing among the country's 8 million pupils — which means that space for new classrooms is needed. But according to the association of school headmasters, Italy is still missing 20,000 additional classrooms for a total of 400,000 students.
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Italy's worrying resurgence started on Saturday, when Italy reported 629 cases in a single day, a rate unseen since May. Now, Italy has done it again, reporting 642 new cases and 7 new deaths. That's more than the 403 new cases reported yesterday. Hospitalizations were just 866 across the country, with 66 in intensive care. Young holidaymakers returning from Greece and other places around Europe have been blamed for a large chunk of the new cases as the number continues to rise.
Coronavirus in Italy: swabs in the supermarket and back-to-school headache
The Ferragosto, which breaks out the festivities and travels of Italians celebrating the culmination of summer without limits, has been celebrated this year with 27 million holidaymakers in Italy, plus waves of young people who emigrated to neighboring countries. All under the threat of the coronavirus, which presents itself threatening to the return because the time has come to establish how many of the holidaymakers were infected by the so-called invisible enemy.
Of the four countries considered at high risk (Spain, Greece, Malta and Croatia), so many young people are arriving that they went to defy prudence by violating all security measures, especially in unrestricted nightclubs.
The picture has changed: a frank sense of fear of being now prisoners of pestilence, of moving from movement to intensive care, leads thousands to get health checks done.
It is expected that between late August and mid-September, Italy will have averages of between one thousand and one thousand and five hundred contagions daily.
Schools or nightclubs
The danger is accentuated by a fact that is also of the greatest political and social importance in the country: the reopening of schools and universities, after six months of quarantine, scheduled for September 14.
"School is our top priority, nightclubs can wait," health minister Roberto Speranza said.
The authorities warned that they could delay the reopening of schools scheduled for next month if coronavirus cases continue to increase and that, if positive cases are detected in schools, there will be "temporary closures" until safety is ensured in the establishments.
Masks and online booking: How Italy's universities plan to reopen after lockdown
The Italian government's Scientific Technical Committee has on Monday signed off on a list of protocols to be followed in the country's universites as academic life is set to restart from mid-September, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.
Coronavirus: Italy begins classes in chaos, with infected teachers, missing desks and all kinds of doubts
Two million serological kits, which are used to detect the presence of coronavirus antibodies, are being sent to health authorities to control nearly two million teachers, teachers and scholastic staff.
The first tests have caused some alarm. One in three teachers refused to be controlled. In particular, in addition, positives were detected to the virus 16 teachers and teachers in Veneto, 20 in Umbria, 12 in Lombardy.
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WHO's European Regional Director Hans Kluge said that schools and academia reopened (universities are also reopened in Italy), the flu season and the highest mortality of the elderly during the winter are added.
"It's a difficult time now, when we go from summer to autumn with three phenomena coming together. Kluge called for national campaigns to get risk groups to get out of the flu. "To tackle the virus, surveillance is the key word."
'Absurd situation': Why teachers in Italy are up in arms ahead of the return to school
As Italy prepares for the reopening of schools in September, teachers are calling for the government to reform an "absurd" national job posting system which is feared will increase the risk of spreading Covid-19.