Italy needs drastic measures to fight COVID-19

Italy’s national preventive measures to control the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have turned out to be insufficient and inconsistent. On January 26, Italy’s Ministry of Health announced medical controls only in two airports, Rome’s Fiumicino and Milan’s Malpensa. Later, on January 31, the government announced the suspension of all direct flights from and to China.

As a member of the Schengen Treaty, the decision to suspend direct fights with China can in no way prevent the monitoring of people carrying the virus. In fact, a more comprehensive action at a regional European level was needed since the beginning of the global outbreak.

On February 22, 11 Italian municipalities in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto were placed into lockdown. Those caught violating the quarantine faced a fine of just 206 euros or imprisonment up to three months. Such punishments are too lenient considering the severity that the violations of quarantine pose to the entire nation’s health.

Italian national newspapers have reported many cases of people attempting to escape from the red zones and COVID-19 patients fleeing from hospitals. In this critical global health crisis, Italy should see China as a reference. In particular, Italy must learn from the Chinese assertiveness in the fight against the virus and must implement harsher punishments for those who violate the quarantine laws.

When the virus is spreading so fast across the country, affecting common citizens and political leaders, such as Nicola Zingaretti, president of the central region of Lazio and leader of Italy’s Democratic Party and, and Alberto Cirio, president of the northwestern region of Piedmont, this is not the right moment to talk about personal freedom of movement. We must make sure that collective public health is guaranteed.

Italy can also learn from China’s quick and efficient crisis response mechanisms, which has been praised and acknowledged by the international community. Among the achievements, China built two makeshift hospitals with 2,600 beds within only a couple of days and was able to mobilize manpower and other resources in such a short notice. Today, with 7,375 cases confirmed and 366 deaths, Italy must vigilantly adopt farsighted measures similar to those implemented in China.

A new administrative decree, signed by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, forced quarantine for the entire region of Lombardy as well as 11 provinces in four other Italian regions. After the lockdown of Hubei province, a province with 57 million people, comparable to almost the entire population of Italy, the one in northern Italy is the second-biggest lockdown in the world. This is unprecedented in Italian modern history and the coming weeks will be decisive to test whether these new measures have worked well.

The dramatic reduction of new cases in China is the consequence of the entire Chinese nation’s relentless efforts to fight COVID-19. Italy can and will, through confidence and national unity as well as learning from China’s successful practices, get out from the current emergency soon. Now is the time to deal with this issue seriously and not superficially as it did in the past weeks. Stay strong Italy! Stay strong China!

The author is a doctoral researcher in diplomacy at Peking University. He graduated in China studies from Peking University and international relations from the London School of Economics.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.