Premier Giuseppe Conte's government is
holding a series of meetings on Tuesday as it prepares a new
decree with the COVID-19-linked rules that will be in force
during the festive season and the restrictions that will apply
regarding issues such as movement between regions and the
opening of shops, bars and restaurants.
Conte, Health Minister Roberto Speranza and Relations with
Parliament Minister Federico D'Incà are meeting the
parliamentary whips of the parties supporting the government at
15:00.
The executive is also set to have a meeting with the regional
governments on Tuesday.
One of the issues the Conte government will have to address
regards whether to reopen Italy's ski slopes for the festive
season.
The regions that have ski resorts are pressing hard for the
pistes to be reopened, saying the damage will be irreparable if
the Christmas business is lost.
But the government appears reluctant to concede, due to fears of
possibly feeding a third wave of contagion, like contact made
during summer holidays contributed to the arrival of the second
wave. Veneto, Piedmont Valle d'Aosta, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia
Giulia and the autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento have
proposed a compromise in which Italy's ski slopes would only be
open to hotel guests and people who own holiday homes in the
mountains.
Italy is currently operating a three-tier system of restrictions
based on each region's COVID-19-contagion risk factor, high-risk
red zones, medium-high orange zones and moderate-risk yellow
zones.
Three regions, Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria, moved from red
to orange at the weekend, meaning non-essential shops could
reopen.
In addition to the tier-based restrictions, the government has
imposed nationwide measures, including the closure of bars and
restaurants at 18:00, distance learning for high-school students
and a curfew, which kicks in at 22.000 and runs until 6:00 every
day.
Speranza has said that he expects the curfew to still be in
force at Christmas and on New Year's Eve..
"It's a measure that is in force and I think it should be
confirmed," Speranza told Mediaset television.
"It is a measure that has enabled us over the last few weeks to
start the gradual, tough path of bringing down the (contagion)
curve".
When asked if the curfew will be valid even for the faithful
going to midnight mass, Speranza replied: "if there's a curfew,
there's a curfew".
"It won't be a Christmas like all the others," he continued. "We
have to speak the truth. "We are in the middle of a highly
significant epidemic".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
