Tag: Italy

Mask-free and ‘low risk’, Italy welcomes milestone

ROME, Italy (AFP) — All of Italy became a mask-free, “low-risk” zone for coronavirus Monday, marking a dramatic milestone for the first European country to be hit by the global pandemic in February 2020. In a decree that took effect Monday, the health ministry for the first time classified each of Italy’s 20 regions as “white”, signifying low risk, under the country’s color-coded classification system that evaluates Covid-19 risk. That means facemasks will no longer […]

Italy offers Covid vaccines to everyone over 12

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy, one of the European nations hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, on Thursday opened vaccinations for everybody over the age of 12. Each region can adapt the national rules but technically anyone registered with health authorities can sign up — including teenagers, after the European Medicines Agency approved the Pfizer/BioNTech jab for 12 to 15-year-olds last week. “It’s a beautiful day,” enthused Luigi de Magistris, the mayor of Naples, saying […]

Three held over deadly Italy cable car crash

by Giovanni GREZZI VERBANIA, Italy (AFP) — Italian police on Wednesday arrested three managers from the operator of a cable car that crashed into a mountain killing 14 people, accusing them of deliberately disabling the emergency brake. A five-year-old boy, the only survivor of Sunday’s tragedy on the Mottarone mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore in northwest Italy, remains in serious condition in hospital. The three suspects are accused of deliberately deactivating the brake that could have […]

Italy hails capture of top mafia boss in Brazil

by Alexandria SAGE with Jordi MIRO in Brasilia ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italian prosecutors and police on Tuesday cheered the capture in Brazil of a leading mafia boss who has skirted justice in Italy for nearly 30 years. Rocco Morabito, number two on the Italian interior ministry’s most dangerous fugitives list, was arrested Monday in northeast Brazil. His capture came almost two years after his audacious escape from a prison in Uruguay, where he was […]

Deadly Italy cable car crash probed as child fights for life

by Franceso Gilioli with Alexandria Sage in Rome STRESA, Italy (AFP) — Investigators were on Monday probing the causes of a horrific cable car crash in the Italian mountains that left 14 people dead and a five-year-old child as the sole survivor. The boy, who lost his parents, grandparents and two-year-old sibling in Sunday’s accident, was hospitalized in a critical condition, but there were hopes for his recovery. “He is still under intensive care, intubated […]

Italy passes 30 million vaccine dose milestone

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy on Saturday passed the milestone of 30 million doses injected in its Covid-19 vaccination effort, with nearly 10 million people in the country now fully vaccinated. More than 9.85 million people in Italy have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, according to government figures, representing 16.6 percent of the 60 million-strong population. Two thirds of the doses administered so far in Italy have gone to those aged over 60. […]

Libya coastguard warns Italians against ‘illegal’ fishing

TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — Libya’s coastguard on Sunday warned against “illegal” fishing in its waters, denying Italian claims it had wounded a fisherman as it fired shots during an operation against four boats from Sicily. Citing “repeated, documented violations”, the coastguard said that on Thursday morning it had “received reports that four Italian fishing vessels were heading from southern Italy” into Libyan waters. The coastguard despatched a patrol to intercept and inspect the boats to […]

Americans given life sentences in Italy for cop murder

by Alexandria SAGE ROME, Italy (AFP) — An Italian court convicted two young Americans Wednesday for the murder of a police officer while they were on a summer holiday in Rome, with both handed life sentences. Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, had admitted stabbing Mario Cerciello Rega during a late-night encounter in July 2019, while out with his friend Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20. Prosecutors claimed it was a brutal, unprovoked attack in which Elder, then 19, stabbed […]

Indian Covid variant found in northern Italy

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Authorities in northern Italy announced Monday they had identified two cases of the Indian variant of coronavirus, in a father and daughter recently returned from India. The news follows reports of another case in the central region of Tuscany last month, and comes after the Italian government banned arrivals from the virus-hit country. “Today in (the city of) Bassano we have the first two patients, two Indians,” announced Luca Zaia, head […]

Italy to begin easing Covid restrictions

ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Italian government said Wednesday it plans to gradually lift Covid-19 restrictions from next week, with restaurants and movie theatres set to reopen. Authorities said restaurants will be allowed to serve patrons outdoors from Monday, but only in yellow zone areas where the risk of contagion is deemed low. Cinemas, theatres and concert halls can also reopen the same day with 50 percent capacity. Schools and universities will be allowed to […]

Italy approves J&J vaccine, recommends it for over 60s

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy on Tuesday declared the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to be “safe” and said it would prioritise its use for people over 60. The announcement came hours after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said blood clots should be listed as a “very rare” side effect of the vaccine. In the light of that ruling, the US-made jab should be considered “definitely safe,” Italian health authorities said in a statement. It […]

Italy under virus curbs again as Dutch, Irish stop AstraZeneca shots

by Agence France Presse Bureaus Coronavirus restrictions were reimposed across much of Italy on Monday, while Ireland and the Netherlands became the latest countries to suspend AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots over blood clot fears despite the firm and the WHO insisting there is no risk. More than 350 million vaccine doses have been administered globally so far, and the AstraZeneca shot — among the cheapest available — is crucial to roll-outs in poorer parts of the […]