The sentence by Chancellor Olaf Scholz "Corona does not take a Christmas break" has not been passed down from Rome in the past few days.

But the Italian government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi acted accordingly: On Christmas Eve, a decree passed the day before was published in the official gazette, which tightened the corona requirements from December 25th.

Thomas Jansen

Editor in politics.

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For example, an FFP2 mask has to be worn on public transport, in cinemas, theaters and museums since Saturday, but a medical mask is still sufficient in restaurants and shops.

Discos and dance halls have to close for the time being.

Italy threatens a care emergency

Even in Italy, where the corona situation was comparatively relaxed for a long time, the situation has worsened despite the high vaccination rate.

The situation in the hospitals is particularly worrying.

Around 12 percent of the beds in the intensive care units are now occupied with Covid 19 patients again, as the National Agency for Regional Health Services announced on Monday.

Overall, 15 percent of all hospital beds nationwide are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

In Liguria it is even 27 percent, in Calabria 28 percent and in the Aosta Valley 30 percent.

In addition, a nursing emergency could threaten if the rapid increase in the number of infections among nurses continues unchecked.

Between December 24 and 27, more than 800 nurses were infected with the corona virus, said Antonio De Palma, president of the nurses union "Nursing Up".

Apart from the first corona wave, it has never been such a high number.

So far there has been no agreement among experts about the role of the Omikron variant for the fourth wave in Italy.

The statements range from 30 percent of all infections to the assessment that the Omikron variant has not yet played a significant role.

In order to convince vaccine skeptics who are not covered by the compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups, the government in Rome is also relying on the inactivated vaccine Novavax. The Special Commissioner to Combat the Pandemic, General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, announced in an interview with the newspaper "Corriere della Sera" on Monday that Italy is expected to receive a first shipment of 1.5 million doses of Novavax between January and February, a total of 2 , 9 million cans will be delivered.

Meanwhile, the national health institute published figures that show that older people in particular are considerably better protected with vaccinations.

The risk of coming to the intensive care unit with a severe course and of having to be ventilated is accordingly 85 times higher in the age group of over eighty-year-olds for unvaccinated persons, and more than six times higher in the forty to fifty-nine year olds.