Italy joins Europe's Christmas coronavirus lockdown list

Italy announced sweeping travel restrictions and bans on large family gatherings, becoming the latest European nation to introduce some form of Christmas lockdown.

A government decree put the entire country into the "red zone", with strict limits on movements on holidays and weekends from December 21 through the January 6 Epiphany holiday.

Non-essential shops, restaurants and bars will be closed, and Italians will only be allowed to travel for work, health and emergency reasons.

To allow a glimmer of Christmas cheer, limited home visits are allowed. A maximum of two people per day can visit someone in their home, not including those under 14.  There will also be a slight easing of restrictions on four working weekdays during the mini lockdown.

Travelling between regions is not permitted, however, and a 10 pm-5 am curfew will remain in place throughout.

Prime Minister Giuseppe ConteConte called the limits "a painful decision." "Our experts were seriously worried that there would be a jump in cases over Christmas... We therefore had to act," he said in a news conference.

The announcement followed days of wrangling in the governing coalition over how strict the lockdown should be following the introduction of internal travel bans earlier this month.

In clamping down on holiday celebrations, Italy joins Germany and The Netherlands, who also imposed new coronavirus-related restrictions this week, although both with some relaxation on Christmas Day itself. Austria will also enter lockdown from Boxing Day.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged citizens to follow the example of soldiers posted abroad and celebrate Christmas with video calls to loved ones instead of in-person gatherings.

"Women and men stationed far away from home to ensure our security know what it means to have limited contact with loved ones," Ms Merkel said in her weekly video podcast. "They know what it means to only be able to Skype over a long period of time instead of being together."

The approach is in marked contrast to other countries such as the UK, which has stuck to a promised five-day easing of measures from December 23 to 28. During that time, residents are free to travel anywhere they like and create a new bubble of up to three different households.

Spain and France are also doing something similar.

Madrid has said travel between regions to visit friends and family is allowed and a maximum of 10 people – including children – can meet on holiday days.

Likewise, Paris has permitted movement around the country, but with no limits on the number of people gathering. Bars, restaurants and cafés remain closed and there is a strict 8pm to 6am curfew that will be lifted only on Christmas Eve.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week, is stable, according to a statement from his office on Saturday. He is currently working in self-isolation from his official residence in Versailles.

All across Europe, exceptional measures have been taken to celebrate the biggest holiday of the Christian calendar, including drive-through markets, live streamed nativity plays and socially distanced visits to Santa's Grotto

Mr Conte’s announcement comes as Lombardy, Veneto and Lazio registered a rate of transmission of over 1, meaning the virus is again spreading in three key regions after weeks of decrease in the contagion curve. The national rate is 0.86, meaning on average the curve is flattening.

"The virus continues to circulate everywhere. We can bend it, but we cannot defeat it," Mr Conte said. "This is why even among our experts there is a strong concern that the contagion curve could surge during the Christmas period."

Italy was the first Western country hit by the pandemic, and also has recorded the highest death toll in Europe, reaching nearly 67,900 on Friday.

Mr Conte said the launch of the vaccination program Dec. 27 would mark the beginning of "the end of this nightmare."

The new restrictions will mean no Christmas lunches in restaurants, as had been foreseen in a previous decree, although take-out and deliveries are allowed. To soften the blow to a sector already devastated, the new decree includes €645 million in aid.

Food shops, hairdressing salons, pharmacies, tobacconists and laundries as well as bookstores will, however, remain open.

Slightly looser curbs will be in place on four non-holiday weekdays - December 28 to 30 and on January 4. On these days, people will be free to leave their houses but bars and restaurants will remain closed.

Mr Conte said the rules were designed to "allow the minimum socialisation that is suitable for this period".

He said police would not be sent into people's homes to check the rules were being observed, but urged Italians to act responsibly.

The condition of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, is stable, and tests had given reassuring results, a statement from his office said Saturday.

Mr Macron, who is working in self-isolation from an official residence outside Paris, "is still presenting the same symptoms of the Covid-19 illness (fatigue, coughing, stiffness)", said the brief statement, signed by his doctor.

But they were not preventing him from carrying out his duties.