09.05.2020 – 12.25 – This morning the Governor of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Massimiliano Fedriga, the Prefect Valerio Valenti, the Mayor of Trieste Roberto Dipiazza and Vice-Governor Riccardo Riccardi held a press conference to take stock of the situation with regard to the Covid-19 emergency and the developments regarding “Phase Two” in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
“I think we can say that the strategy of Friuli Venezia Giulia has allowed us to achieve the best results, nationally speaking, and the data confirm this”.
The governor said, pointing out how, despite the fact that the region is situated in an area that is “particularly critical for the constant relations with the areas where the contagion had developed the most,” we have managed to largely contain its spread, especially thanks to the measures put in place and the collaboration of the citizens themselves.
With regard to the reopening of commercial activities, Fedriga made an appeal to the government, stressing the need to speed it up, “with the opening of commercial activities on May 11th and the remaining ones on May 18th“ – a matter reiterated today at the Conference of the Regions – as well as the definition of a framework of rules “precise and shared by citizens”, in a direction not only “of economic and working recovery, but also of the stability of the health system”.
Finally, the Governor, with regard to the request to suspend the payment of the extraordinary contribution to the balance of public finance for the two-year period 2020/2021, announced that a document will ask “all representatives of the political forces of the territory not to sign the May Decree” if “an agreement with the needs, not of the Region but of the citizens of Friuli Venezia Giulia is not found. The national executive must understand,” he concluded, “that in a time of emergency – now also of an economic nature – the extraordinary contribution means that the region cannot guarantee the ordinary essential services provided by the Constitution.
Providing an overall picture of the security controls carried out on the territory, the prefect Valenti, presented the data with reference to the period between March 10th and May 3rd; a situation defined as “a good business card to face the second phase”.
A total of 188,731 checks were carried out throughout the region: 7,967 people were sanctioned, 121 were reported for false certification, 16 were reported for quarantine violations, 479 for other crimes. 65,147 is the total number of businesses controlled: 99 were sanctioned, 13 were provisionally closed and 7 were closed; overall only 0.15% of businesses were sanctioned. Finally, almost 80% of the sanctions relate to unjustified travel, while 9% relate to failure to use protective equipment.
The Prefect concluded saying that the fronts on which it is now necessary to pay more attention, “are the transport system where there is a higher risk of gathering and therefore of contagion”, with a monitoring of the overall movements together with the “measures that transport companies are taking”; the coastal strip, i.e. “the approach that citizens will have with the need and the habit of going to the sea”; and safety in the workplace.
The mayor of Trieste, Roberto Dipiazza, also spoke on the subject of “beaches”, explaining how, at the moment, they are working with the competent regional councillors to find solutions adapted to the individual specificities of the territory, also because of “two very different situations in Friuli Venezia Giulia“: that of Lignano and Grado compared to that of Trieste. The mayor also took the opportunity to express his satisfaction and gratitude for the result achieved with the intervention of the Region and the Municipality for the reduction of the TARI (waste tax) for non-household users and of the public land occupation tax (COSAP). “The municipal administration” concluded “is working for the future and the restart“.
Finally, with regard to the contagions in Friuli Venezia Giulia, on the basis of data updated as of May 5th, Vice-Governor Riccardi highlighted the particularly positive figure concerning “the percentage of people who recovered, compared to the total number of cases detected so far, which stands at 57.2%“.
The point on which to focus the most attention at the moment, he therefore highlighted, “are now the nursing homes” where 676 cases are recorded, (167 of which already recovered), and where there have been 150 deaths, out of the total 309 recorded in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
As far as contagion monitoring is concerned, a total of 82,548 swap tests were carried out on the territory (9,451 in nursing homes); on this subject, the willingness was also expressed to further expand the capacity to carry out the tests, with “the aim of reaching 6-7000 tests per day relatively quickly”.
“In the next few days,” concluded the Deputy Governor, “we will define a further organisational model that will allow us to address the main issues of phase two”, i.e. the monitoring of contagion, containment, and the availability of protection devices.
