New dpcm: museums closed (but art lovers are left with churches) and local lockdowns

It’s official: the new dpcm signed overnight by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte closes museums and exhibitions throughout Italy, as well as libraries, archives and all cultural venues. Here’s what it says in the text of the decree approved to contain the Covid-19 contagion: “the exhibitions and the services of opening to the public of museums and other institutes and places of culture referred to in Article 101 of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape, referred to in Legislative Decree January 22, 2004, no. 42, the effectiveness of the regulatory provisions set forth in Article 4, paragraph 2, second sentence, of Minister of Cultural and Environmental Heritage Decree No. 507 of December 11, 1997, which provides for free access to all state institutes and places of culture on the first Sunday of the month, remains suspended.”

Instead, churches (which will be the only alternative for art lovers) and cafes will remain open until 6 p.m., except in “red” zones (i.e., “areas characterized by a scenario of maximum severity and a high level of risk”) and “orange” zones (“characterized by a scenario of high severity and a high level of risk”), identified on a regional or provincial basis. In the areas where the “red” scenario will occur, which will be monitored on a weekly basis, there will be de facto local lockdowns: in the high-risk areas, all inbound and outbound travel will be prohibited, as well as inbound travel (except for reasons of proven necessity), so de facto no movement will be allowed. Retail business activities will then be suspended in these areas except for basic necessities, and all food services (bars, restaurants, pubs, ice cream parlors, bakeries) will be closed, although they will be able to make home delivery or perform take-out services. Also suspended will be all sports in at-risk areas, except for individual motor activity (to be carried out close to the home) and outdoor sports to be carried out individually. In orange zones, one will be able to move only within one’s municipality, and any exit from the municipal area will require reasons of proven necessity. Restaurant businesses will close, but stores will remain open.

In the other, lower-risk (what we might call “green”) areas, the measures already in place will be in effect, plus the new measures that apply nationwide: the aforementioned closure of museums, the closure of shopping centers on weekends, the halved capacity of public transportation, and above all the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. As for interregional travel, one will only be able to move from one green region to another green region. A region will be able to change “color” depending on the evolution of the epidemiological situation (in other words, an orange region could be “promoted” to green, an orange region demoted to the red zone, and so on). The measures will come into effect on Friday, November 6, and will remain in place until Thursday, December 3, 2020.

Image: Palazzo Chigi. Ph. Credit

New dpcm: museums closed (but art lovers are left with churches) and local lockdowns

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