Rome, Jan. 14 (BNA): Italy settled early on in the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) with a “yes” to hide or not to hide. Now, the epidemic center in Europe is once hoping that stricter mask rules will help it beat the latest wave of infections.
Other countries are taking similar measures because the more transmissible – however, apparently less virulent – variant of the omicron is spreading across the continent.
With intensive care units in Italian hospitals rapidly filling up with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, the government announced on Christmas Eve that FFP2 masks – which offer users greater protection than cloth or surgical masks – should be worn on public transport, including planes and trains, The Associated Press reported that ferries and subways.
This is despite the fact that all passengers in Italy, as of this week, must be vaccinated, or have recently recovered from COVID-19. The FFP2 must now be worn in theaters, cinemas and sporting events, indoors or out, and cannot be removed even for those who wear it to eat or drink.
Italy reintroduced the outer mask mandate. She never raised her internal mandate — even when infections fell sharply in the summer.
On a cold morning in Rome this week, Lillo D’Amico, 84, was wearing a wool beret and white FFP2 as he bought a newspaper at his neighborhood newsstand.
“(The masks) cost a little money, they cost you a small sacrifice,” he said. “When you do the math, it costs a lot less than hospital treatment.”
When he sees someone from the unmasked minority walking past him, he turns away. “They see (the masks) as an insult to their freedom,” said D’Amico, shrugging his shoulders.
Spain reinstated the rule of the outer mask on Christmas Eve. After the 14-day infection rate rose to 2,722 new infections per 100,000 people by the end of last week – from 40 per 100,000 in mid-October – Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was asked if mandating outdoor mask use was helping.
“Of course it is. I don’t say that. The science itself says it because (it’s) a virus that is transmitted on exhalation,” Sanchez said.
Portugal returned the masks at the end of November, having largely abandoned the requirements when it met its target of vaccinating 86% of the population.
Greece has also reauthorized the outdoor mask, with an FFP2 or double surgical mask required on public transport and in indoor public spaces.
The Dutch government’s outbreak management team recommended this week that the mask be mandated for people over the age of 13 in crowded public indoor areas such as restaurants, museums and theaters, and for spectators at indoor sporting events. These places are currently closed under lockdown until at least January 14.
In France, the outdoor mask was partially reauthorized in December in several cities, including Paris. The age of children who can wear masks in public has been lowered to 6 from 11.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced last week that people should wear FFP2 masks outdoors if they cannot separate at least two meters (6.5 feet).
In Italy, with more than two million people currently infected with the virus in a country of 60 million and absences from work limiting train and bus journeys, the government also sees masks as a way to allow society to fully function.
People who have recently had booster shots or a second vaccine dose can avoid being quarantined after coming into contact with an infected person if they wear an FFP2 mask for 10 days.
The government has ordered stores to make FFP masks available for 75 euro cents ($0.85). In the first year of the pandemic, FFP2 cost up to €10 ($11.50) – whenever it could be found.
Italians wear it in a palette of colors. The father of a baby baptized by Pope Francis this week in the Sistine Chapel wore a burgundy one, with a matching tie and jacket pocket square. But the Pope, who practically avoided the mask in public, did not wear it.
On Monday, the Vatican State imposed FFP2s in all indoor settings. The small, walled independent country across the Tiber from the heart of Rome also stipulated that Vatican employees could go to work without being quarantined after coming into contact with someone who tested positive if they wore, in addition to being vaccinated or receiving a booster dose. FFP2s.
Francis appeared to be wearing an FFP2 when he surprised shoppers in Rome on Tuesday night, when he walked out of a music store near the Pantheon before being returned to the Vatican.
In Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has focused on vaccination, masks have never been needed outdoors.
But the government said this month that high school students should wear face coverings in class. But Education Minister Nadim Zahawi said the rule would not be applied “for a day longer than necessary”.
When the British government lifted epidemic restrictions in July 2021, and turned the wearing of masks from a requirement to a proposal, the use of masks decreased significantly.
Britain is indicating what can happen when measures such as wearing masks are not evaluated, says Nino Cartabellota, head of the Bologna-based GIMBE Foundation, which monitors health care in Italy.
“The situation in the UK showed that the use of vaccination alone was not enough” to beat the epidemic, even though Britain was one of the first countries to start vaccination, he said in a video interview.
FKN