EU countries introduced further travel restrictions this week in response to rising Covid-19 rates–many residents took to the streets to protest.
With rising infection rates of Covid-19 across all EU countries, many governments have implemented new travel restrictions this week, leading some groups and politicians to protest. EU countries are using the European Centre for Disease Control’s ‘traffic light’ system for determining travel restrictions, which this week, labelled all countries as red, except for Norway and Finland–a big change on the week before, where some countries had been orange or green. Most countries are still opting to keep schools open where possible across Europe (particularly for younger children) to try to alleviate the stress of childcare on parents. Many of the lockdowns are much lighter in nature than those imposed in March and don’t call for a complete ban on movement. This week, many countries though–such as across France and some Italian regions–opted to take high school down to half classes, or to continue lessons online. As rates spiked across Italy, many of its regions were put into strict lockdown conditions with the closure of many non-essential businesses across the country. AP News reported that the northern regions of Lombardy (which includes Milan), Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta and the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, will be under increased restrictions for the next 15 days. This implies the closure of all non-essential stores, take-out only service for bars and restaurants, distance learning for students 12 and over and a ban on leaving hometowns except for work, health or other serious reasons. Sicily and Puglia, two other southern regions, are now under a second tier of restrictions.
