Coronavirus in Itly: Now Italy enjoys the return of routine, with no need for facemasks for outdoors

ROME: (Monitoring Desk) After the entire country was declared a “low-risk” zone for coronavirus in Italy on Monday, Italians were finally permitted to go outside without masks, marking a watershed moment for the first European country to be affected by the global epidemic in February 2020.

The health ministry categorized each of Italy’s 20 regions as “white” for the first time in an order that went into force Monday. “White” is the smallest of four categories in a color-coded categorization scheme that gauges coronavirus risk for increasing the case of COVID-19 in country.

It means that facemasks are no longer required in outdoor areas, which is great news in a state where temperatures are projected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some southern districts this week due to a recent heatwave.

It’s a comfort because it’s quite hot, Salvatore Casuccio, a local in central Rome, told AFP. Many people out and about on Monday morning, though, were still wearing masks, whether out of habit or out of anxiety. Giulia, another Rome resident, and her mother were still wearing theirs. This situation continues to worry us. She stated, It isn’t over yet.

Coronavirus in Italy, which was once a symbol of the West’s coronavirus crisis, with pictures of army trucks delivering coffins from an overflowing mortuary in the northern city of Bergamo being broadcast across the world, has seen infections and deaths drop dramatically in recent weeks. According to the government, one-third of Italy’s citizens over the age of 12 had been fully vaccinated as of Monday morning, or 17.8 million individuals.

Tourists from the European Union, the United States, Canada, and Japan, who were previously barred from entering the nation, are now permitted to do so after the government abolished a quarantine requirement for vaccinated travellers or those who test negative.