Drumroll, please
To say that last night’s government announcement about Phase 2 was an anticlimax is an understatement. In brief, what was decided is: From May4th people will be allowed to visit relatives who live in their own state. If you have no relatives nearby, tough luck, because you still can’t see any friends, or, God forbid, have a dinner party. I guess you can have a dinner party with your relatives though, even if these are old, and endangered, you know, the Nonni (grandparents) that everyone is so worried about. You will be allowed to exercise beyond the 200-meter perimeter, but you have to do it alone, or at most with one other person who keeps a 2-meter distance. You can go outside for exercise but not for amusement, and you cannot play games. So, if you live by the sea you can go for a swim, but you cannot sunbathe on the beach. Parks may open at the discretion of the local government. Masks are obligatory in all closed public spaces. You will still need to carry a self-certification form that states the reason you have left your house.
On May 18th retail stores will be allowed to reopen, along with museums, and, if all goes well, on June 1st restaurants, bars, hairdressers, beauticians and massage therapists will be allowed to resume activity. No word on gyms, though athletes who are on teams can resume their training as of May 18th. Also, no word on hotels, or cinemas for that matter. Surprisingly, there was no pronouncement about the soccer season. (Not that I cared, but here in Italy people do care greatly about the “beautiful game”) For now, people will have to stay within their own state, and cannot go to their second homes.
My heart sank at having to wait until June to go the hairdresser, but this was hardly the main source of my frustration. What is baffling is that this calendar of reopening was announced without a single mention of a plan to test or track contagion, or how to bolster the health care system to deal with an eventual second wave. There was no mention of the hotly debated app Immuni. The plan is hollow. You cannot ask people who live in a democracy to give up their personal liberties without having a clear endgame. Didn’t I hear about a 4-pronged strategy - the “four Ds”: Distance (as in safety/social distance), Devices (as in Safety Equipment), Digitalisation (all workers who can work remotely must continue to do so) and Diagnosis (as in testing)? What about this “Diagnosis”? Did this get smoked away in some politician’s bullshit pipe? I appreciate that we have to be conservative in reopening the country little by little. But where is the plan to tackle the virus? This is just a game of hide and seek, and it’s getting really boring.