Italy, Austria Impose New Holiday Lockdowns to Curb Virus Spread

(Bloomberg) -- Italy and Austria are leading Europe’s latest round of lockdowns during the holiday season as the neighboring countries seek to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.

The Italian cabinet voted late Friday to impose a “stop-and-go” lockdown from December 24 to January 6, with strict restrictions on and around Christmas, New Year’s and the Epiphany holiday on Jan. 6, with slightly softer curbs for December 28-30 and January 4, Ansa newswire reported. All bars and restaurants and non-essential stores will be closed and movement will be limited during the periods of stricter measures.

The Austrian government, after alternating between looser and tougher restrictions over the past six weeks, has ordered non-essential stores to close again, while restaurants and hotels will stay closed and schools won’t reopen as usual after the Christmas holidays. The measures take effect on Dec. 26 and will lift on Jan. 18.

“The forecast for the first quarter is very, very dark,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in Vienna. “The growth of infections could turn exponential again at any time.”

Austria, which has about 9 million residents, will carry out mass testing with rapid antigen kits at the end of the lockdown. The country enacted relatively loose restrictions Nov. 3 and tightened them significantly from Nov. 17, closing schools and non-essential stores through Dec. 6 before returning to the looser model.

Austria’s seven-day incidence of cases fell by two-thirds to about 200 per 100,000 as of Friday. The target is to bring this measure down to 100, Kurz said.

Italy’s Conte, who has no political party of his own, has sought to mediate between coalition partners who are divided over imposing curbs that are unpopular and risk harming an economy crippled by previous lockdown measures. The government is also split on whether to reopen schools for grade 9 and above in early January.

Italy registered 17,992 new virus cases on Friday, compared with 18,236 the day before. It also reported 674 daily virus deaths, compared with 683 on Thursday.

“We have to make choices to safeguard the most fragile and the elderly, even at the cost of becoming unpopular,” Francesco Boccia, minister for regional affairs and a member of the center-left Democratic Party, told Sky Tg24 on Thursday. “Each of us will have to spend Christmas at our own home.”

The government has also strongly recommended that citizens not host people from outside their households during the holidays.

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