The coronavirus epidemic continues to spread in Europe. Italy has registered 1,071 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, crossing the symbolic threshold of 1,000 cases per day for the first time since May 12, according to an official report released on Saturday.

This latest report confirms the upward trend observed in recent days in the peninsula, with 947 additional cases on Friday, 845 on Thursday, and 642 on Wednesday. 

In its weekly report, the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), a public health body dependent on the government, reports a "trend towards a gradual worsening" of the epidemiological situation, with an emphasis on "the spread of the virus throughout the national territory ".

The regions with the most new cases are Lazio, Lombardy and the region of Venice. 

"A record number" crossed in the Rome region

The situation in the capital region is particularly worrying: the 215 new cases represent "a record number", commented Alessio D'Amato, the health officer of Lazio. We have to go back to March 28, in full confinement, to find the previous record, which stood at 208.

"61% (of these new cases) are linked to returns from vacation," he said, and more specifically 45% (97 cases) relate to returns from Sardinia, in the south, which had been spared by the first wave of the virus but where the comings and goings of tourists and unwary revelers contributed to the spread of the virus.

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The daily Il Corriere della Sera also highlighted Saturday on its one "the Sardinian case": "More contagions among those who return from it".

Faced with this outbreak of cases, the president of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, also leader of the Democratic Party, a center-left formation in power, asked the Ministry of Health and the Sardinia region to "put in place emergency checks with tests on boarding places "when leaving the island.

A position shared by the director of the Roman hospital specializing in infectious diseases Spallanzani, Francesco Vaia: "The solution is to carry out tests on the departure of boats, planes and trains. It is only in this way that we will prevent the spread of the virus ".

Tests, closing of nightclubs and wearing of the compulsory mask

The government has taken several measures to stem the new wave of contagions: closure of nightclubs since August 17, compulsory wearing of masks in busy places from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The Rome police force thus imposed on the night of Friday to Saturday its first fines, in the amount of 400 euros, for lack of mask in the tourist district of Trastevere, very frequented by young people.

Over the past two weeks, the average age of those infected has dropped to 32, according to the ISS. Since mid-June, "the number of new cases imported from abroad has certainly increased, but the majority of new contagions have occurred locally".

More specifically, over the period from August 3 to 16, cases of Italians who tested positive upon returning from a trip abroad represented 27.2% of new cases, according to the ISS.

The health ministry report published on Saturday also reports three deaths, bringing the death toll in Italy to 35,430 for a total of 258,136 cases since the start of the pandemic.

With AFP

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