Italy imposes mask mandate outside and in as virus rebounds
ROME
Italy imposed a nationwide outdoor mask mandate Wednesday with fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,163) for violators, as the European country where COVID-19 first hit hard scrambles to keep rebounding infections from spiraling out of control.
The government passed the decree even though Italy’s overall per capita infection rate is among the lowest in Europe. But Premier Giuseppe Conte warned that a steady, nineweek rise in infections nationwide demanded new preventive measures to stave off economicallydevastating closures and shutdowns.
“We have to be more rigorous because we want to avoid at all costs more restrictive measures for production and social activities,” Conte said.
The decree was passed on the same day that Italy added 3,678 infections and 31 deaths to its official coronavirus toll, the highest increase in new cases since the peak of the outbreak in April. Both hard-hit Lombardy and southern Campania added more than 500 cases each.
Italy has over 36,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, the second-highest number in Europe after Britain.
Even though the World Health Organization doesn’t specifically recommend masks outdoors for the general population, the trend has taken off in Italy, particularly as new clusters have been identified in southern regions that largely escaped the first wave of infection.
The new mask mandate was contained in a government decree extending the state of emergency until Jan. 31. It requires residents to have masks on them at all times outdoors, and wear them unless they can guarantee that they can remain completely isolated from anyone other than family. That effectively makes them obligatory outdoors in all urban and semi-urban settings, with exemptions for eating in restaurants and bars.
In addition, masks must now be worn indoors everywhere except private homes, but even at home, Conte urged Italians to keep their distances with
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte adjusts his mask as he meets the media in Rome on Wednesday. ‘We have to be more rigorous because we want to avoid at all costs more restrictive measures for production and social activities,’ Conte said of the mask order.
relatives, given most new infections are occurring within families.
“The state can’t ask citizens to wear masks in their own homes,” Conte said. “But we have a strong recommendation for all citizens: Even in our families we have to be careful.”
Exceptions include for
outdoor sporting activities, children under 6 and for people with health conditions that preclude wearing masks.
Fines ranging from 400 to 1,000 euros ($463 to $1,163) are foreseen for violations, Italian news agency ANSA said.
Italy is joining Spain,
Turkey, North Macedonia, India and a handful of other Asian countries in imposing a nationwide, outdoor mask mandate. Spain has had such a requirement in place since mid-May and Turkey since last month.