“As Vacationers Relax, The Virus Doesn’t” - LIVE From Bolzano, Italy

“As Vacationers Relax, The Virus Doesn’t” - LIVE From Bolzano, Italy

Connecticut native Rebecca Couto da Silva joined GoLocal LIVE from Bolzano, Italy, where she said the summer season in the European country has seen a slight uptick in coronavirus cases — and there is still a lot of uncertainty around the upcoming school year. 

“I think you’ll see a summer spike with people relaxing, but I’d be surprised if it got big everywhere,” said da Silva, who appeared on LIVE last Friday. “There could definitely be pockets, but for example we have 2 [news cases] per day, 3 per day, and I think yesterday was 15, so it’s still a very small number for a half a million people.”

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“I think tourism is having an effect,” said da Silva. “Last week I was out on Monday, and I was seeing a lot of compliant tourists. I was reading that the agencies in charge of tourism, the companies were complaining tourists were not wearing masks, and we saw a spike in cases. As a county, it seems to be under control, but as vacationers relax, the virus doesn’t.”

Parents Have School Questions in Italy, Too

With the school year about to start, da Silva said Italy similarly had a number of questions to answer about how to educated its children. 

“I got a couple of letters — one of them was a color-coded system,” said da Silva, of interactions for her school-aged daughter. “So I think they’re assuming it will be yellow going forward, which is staggered entry times.”

“There was also an order to split class sizes in two, so that’s a lot to do,” she said. “It’s unclear whether you’d stagger or move some kids to the afternoon. It’s all up in the air — what we got was some initial plans.”