COVID-19 in the EU Member States

Italy confirmed its first cases of COVID-19 on 31 January, whereupon the government immediately suspended all flights to and from China and declared a national state of emergency. In the early stages of the pandemic, the country saw intense localised clusters in the Northern regions of Lombardy – which had 984 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by 1 March – and Veneto. Lockdown measures were implemented in the North in early March, followed shortly by a comprehensive national quarantine strategy: funerals and cultural events were prohibited; scheduled sporting events were cancelled; and non-essential businesses were closed. As of 3 August, Italy had 246,488 confirmed cases and 35,123 deaths from COVID-19. Legal sanctions were introduced for Italians who breached the lockdown rules – under Italian law, the negligent spread of an epidemic is punishable by a prison sentence of up to 12 years – and in July Italian Minister of Health Roberto Speranza proposed involuntary trattamento sanitario obbligatorio (mandatory medical treatment) be applied to patients who refuse hospital treatment for COVID-19, saying: “I am evaluating with my legal department the hypothesis of compulsory health treatment in cases where a person must be treated but [refuses] to be. At the same time, my thoughts on how Italians have behaved during this crisis are positive, as without this fundamental harmony we would not have bent the curve.”