Covid: a new government Dpcm for January 16

Covid emergency, the national government is working on a new Dpcm that will go into effect on January 16. The Minister for Regional Affairs Francesco Boccia has called a meeting with the Regions for Monday morning, ancient and Upi with on the agenda the measures for the new Dpcm. Health Minister Roberto Speranza will also participate in the meeting, scheduled for 10.30.

Meanwhile, the daily monitoring of the contagion curve continues. According to data released by the Ministry of Health, today the new positive cases are 19.978 (yesterday 17.533) compared to 172.119 swabs carried out. Infected patients are hospitalized 2.593 while they remain in home isolation 546.989 people. Overall, the positive cases are 572.842 (2453 more than yesterday). Today's new deaths are 483 (yesterday 620).

The government is drafting a new Dpcm

According to the first rumors that are leaking, the confirmation of the current measures is expected in the new Dpcm. In addition, new restrictions are being considered, even if the new measures do not seem to have already been defined at the moment. The aim is to lower the RT threshold to determine the positioning in the bands of the various regions. Furthermore, the government is thinking of introducing a further tightening to contain the spread of infections.

The novelty should be that if the weekly incidence of cases is higher than 250 per 100 thousand inhabitants, the red zone is automatically triggered. The proposal, put forward by the Higher Institute of Health, was shared by the CTS and will have to be agreed with the Regions. A meeting between the government and the regions has not yet been set. But it is likely to be held early next week ahead of the Prime Minister's expiration on January 15.

The extension of the emergency is very likely

The government is also considering the extension of the state of emergency expiring at the end of January. “This is the first big challenge: don't think you have won, keep the level of attention very high and continue with correct behavior and restrictive measures. This is the fundamental weapon for our battle against the virus for a few more months ". Health Minister Roberto Speranza said this in a webinar organized by the Italian Federation of pediatricians (Fimp).

Reached 500 thousand vaccinations

Yesterday, Speranza said, “I signed ordinances that show a significant piece of our country in orange and in Europe the data of the resurgence of the virus are very significant. That is, the virus continues to circulate and continues to be a very formidable adversary. Unfortunately, for some time, the mitigation measures and the rules are and will remain the fundamental weapon with which to defend ourselves ".

"On the vaccinations anti-Covid we started at a very determined pace and yesterday we exceeded 500 administrations in Italy. I think we are still at the beginning of the journey and the doses we have are obviously still limited ". These are the considerations of the Minister of Health. “The overcoming of 500 thousand vaccinations in Italy - added Speranza - I think is an important signal. I want to express gratitude to all the men and women of the National Health Service who have enabled us to achieve this very first result ”.