Italy’s Coronavirus Numbers Surging — New England Native Couto da Silva LIVE From Bolzano
Monday, August 24, 2020
Connecticut native Rebecca Couto da Silva joined GoLocal LIVE from Bolzano, Italy on Friday, where she talked about the country’s coronavirus cases surge back up — and what she has observed.
The number of daily cases in Italy went from a low of 114 on July 14 — to 1,209 on August 23.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“With Coronavirus Cases Surging, Europe Braces for New Phase in Pandemic,” reported the New York Times on Friday. “Italy rules out new lockdown as coronavirus cases rise,” reported Reuters on Sunday.
“There’s some debate whether it’s just that there’s an increase in testing…there’s a lot of denialism going around,” said da Silva. “I have seen a couple of people saying ‘no slowdown,’ it’s just that the testing is up. I think just looking at the raw number, of course, it’s pretty shocking from a public policy standpoint — but it’s not surprising I think."
“For a couple of weeks, I’ve been saying that I’ve been observing a lot of behavior of people feeling very relaxed about the virus. So it does represent a real uptick and it reflects the fact that there’s been a bit of relaxation of practices,” she said.
Couto da Silva -- who earlier in August warned "as vacationers relax, the virus doesn't" -- spoke to how the country is now addressing the increase in cases.
“After we spoke last week Italy came out with a new mask mandate which is basically from six p.m. to six a.m., if you’re in a place where a crowd could gather, you have to wear a mask," said da Silva.
“We’ve been in the low singles [for cases] — [the day before] was 21, and that’s a pretty shocking number,” she added. “I know it’s probably nothing for the United States but when you’re at 2,3, 5, and when your big day is like 7 or 9, to have it be 21 all of a sudden, it’s a pretty night number, and I don’t think that particular number is attributable to testing going up."
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