Lombards and Piedmontese leave for a second home in Liguria, the “yellow” region
Uncomfortable with the rules imposed by the Italian government, thousands of Lombards and Piedmontese left the red areas towards their second home on the Ligurian Riviera, in the yellow area, for example. The escape began as soon as the government announced a new lockdown in Italy, which came into force this Friday (6).
During the early hours of the morning, the highways that provide access to regions least affected by Covid-19 were congested, according to local newspapers.
The division by color of the 20 regions of the peninsula, in red for those with high contagion, orange for medium, and yellow for moderate, announced the previous day by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, mainly affects the regions of Lombardia e Piedmont, engines of the economy.
In addition to them, they are also designated as red Calabria e Aosta Valley, which led its regional rulers to protest.
In these four regions, it will only be allowed to leave the house to work or go to school, while non-essential businesses must remain closed, leaving the municipality of residence will not be allowed – with some exceptions – and all bars and restaurants will be closed.
“Owners of second homes are always welcome,” said the mayor of Bordighera, Vittorio Ingenito, showing that he was not worried about the invasion of new residents in his city, and possible overload on the local health system.
“If the government had foreseen this phenomenon, which is largely predictable, it could have regulated it. Therefore, we are not the ones who are going to put up barricades”, added the mayor of Liguria.
Reasons for a new lockdown
This Thursday (5), Italy recorded another 445 deaths caused by the new coronavirus, the highest number for a single day since May 2, when 474 deaths had been recorded.
Furthermore, the updated bulletin from the Ministry of Health records 34.505 new cases of contagion this Thursday, a record in the country since the beginning of the pandemic. With this, the total number of people already infected in Italy reached 824.879, while the number of victims rose to 40.192.
According to the Ministry of Health, the country also has 312.339 cured patients and a record 472.348 active cases. Of this total, 2.391 are admitted to ICUs, the highest number since April 21 (2.471), even before the end of the national lockdown.
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