A man wearing a face mask to curb the spread of COVID-19, walks past Rome's ancient Colosseum.Alessandra Tarantino/The Associated Press
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Italy’s open-close cycle entered its latest stage Monday with a near-national lockdown as new coronavirus variants boosted infection and fatality numbers and the vaccination rollout made only slow progress.
Meanwhile, more European countries paused the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns that it may cause blood clotting. Germany joined Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Bulgaria, France, Spain and Italy in suspending the product while the European Union’s medicines regulator conducts an assessment of known clotting cases. German Health Minister Jens Spahn called the decision a “precautionary suspension.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Health Canada regulators are constantly analyzing all the available information about vaccines and have guaranteed those approved in Canada are safe for use. “Therefore, the very best vaccine for you to take is the first one that is offered to you,” he said, adding that none of the vaccine doses Canada has received are from the batch linked to possible side effects reported in Europe.
Andrew Pollard, the biologist who heads Oxford University’s vaccine group, which developed the vaccine with AstraZeneca, told the BBC that there was “very reassuring evidence that there is no increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the U.K., where most of the doses in Europe have been given so far.”
The latest restrictions mean more than two-thirds of Italians are back to where they started a year ago – in tight lockdown – and this third wave of the pandemic means cities such as Rome, Naples, Milan, Turin and Venice are once again high-risk “red” zones.
The rest of the country – save the island of Sardinia – is in medium-risk “orange” zones, where restrictions are slightly less severe. All of Italy will go into “red” on the three days over Easter, meaning the country will effectively be in lockdown for the next three weeks, with potentially devastating economic consequences.
“I am aware that today’s measures will have an impact on children’s education, on the economy, but also on the psychological state of us all,” new Prime Minister Mario Draghi said. “But they are necessary to avoid a worsening that will make inevitable even more stringent measures.”
The British variant of the virus, known as B.1.1.7, is prevalent in Italy, according to the Health Ministry. Data published by the medical journal BMJ said it is more contagious and may be more deadly.
Small clusters of the Brazilian and South African variants have also been found.
The goal of the lockdown is to drop the R(t) number, which rates the virus’s ability to spread, to less than one. The latest figure was 1.6, which means that, on average, one person will infect 1.6 others, leading to a sharp rise in the number of cases. Italy is reporting its highest infection rate since November. Sunday’s 21,315 new cases brought the total since February, 2020, to 3.2 million. Two hundred and sixty-four people died, bringing that total to more than 102,000, the second-highest in Europe, after Britain.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases
Seven-day rolling average per million people
1,000
800
600
400
Italy
EU
200
U.S.
Britain
Canada
0
Jan.
23
April
30
June
19
Aug.
8
Sept.
27
Nov.
16
Jan.
5
March
14
the globe and mail, Source: Our world in data
(Johns Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 Data –
Last updated March 15)
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases
Seven-day rolling average per million people
1,000
800
600
400
Italy
EU
200
U.S.
Britain
Canada
0
Jan.
23
April
30
June
19
Aug.
8
Sept.
27
Nov.
16
Jan.
5
March
14
the globe and mail, Source: Our world in data
(Johns Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 Data –
Last updated March 15)
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases
Seven-day rolling average per million people
1,000
800
600
400
Italy
EU
200
U.S.
Britain
Canada
0
Jan.
23
April
30
June
19
Aug.
8
Sept.
27
Nov.
16
Jan.
5
March
14
the globe and mail, Source: Our world in data (Johns Hopkins
University CSSE COVID-19 Data – Last updated March 15)
The red-zone restrictions have shut bars, restaurants and cafés, except for takeout. Schools and non-essential stores are closed. Italians are confined to their homes except for exercise in their neighbourhoods and supermarket and pharmacy runs. The 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew remains in place, and non-essential travel between regions is banned. Masks are mandatory outside the home.
Italy was in deep recession last year, and the new lockdown is expected to ensure the downturn continues through the first quarter. Restaurant owners were devastated by the news of the new lockdown. “Today [Sunday] is the last day they allow us to work – an incredible injustice,” said Claudio Olivetti, the owner of La Villetta dal 1940 restaurant near Rome’s centre. “Without this work, we are practically dead.”
Italy’s vaccination program has failed to bring down the number of new infections. According to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, the country had fully vaccinated only 3.3 per cent of its population, with 7.8 per cent having received the first dose. While the Italian vaccine rollout is in line with the rest of the European Union, it is well behind efforts in Britain, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Mr. Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank, wants 80 per cent of the population vaccinated by the end of September. He recently banned the export of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Australia.
But production and logistical problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine – and now the suspension of its use by some health authorities in the EU – could undermine Mr. Draghi’s plans.
The Britain-Sweden pharmaceuticals giant was to deliver 100 million doses to EU countries in the first three months of 2021. The company later reduced that to 40 million, then 30 million. Spring deliveries are expected to fall to 70 million doses from the original target of 180 million. The shortfalls are partly due to AstraZeneca’s inability to export the vaccine to the EU from production sites elsewhere in the world – the result of apparent hoarding.
The rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been further crippled in recent days over concerns that it may lead to blood clotting. On the weekend, the northern Italian region of Piedmont said it would stop using an AstraZeneca batch after the death Saturday of a local teacher who had received the vaccine.
Norway’s medicines agency was the first to put its AstraZeneca vaccine campaign on hold after learning that several recipients were being treated for blood clots and low blood platelet counts.
The World Health Organization is urging governments to continue using the vaccine, saying no causal link between it and blood clotting has been established. The European Medicines Agency is investigating the few blood-clotting cases, but said it has no indication they are connected to the vaccine. The benefits “continue to outweigh its risks,” it said.
On Friday, AstraZeneca said the reported cases of blood clotting in vaccinated people was “significantly lower … than would be expected among the general population.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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Eric Reguly