Italy, resisting another coronavirus lockdown, shows peril of piecemeal restrictions

The team of city police officers had been assigned to look for coronavirus rule-breakers, so one evening last week, they parked their cars in the middle of one of Rome's liveliest neighborhoods and walked from one restaurant to the next. In 90 minutes on patrol, they didn’t find a single violator. What they found, instead, was nightlife that conformed to the rules but nonetheless posed risks for spreading the novel coronavirus. Italy had imposed a mandate for mask-wearing outdoors — but it didn’t apply to the people eating at packed alfresco tables. The country had banned dining in groups of seven or more, but there were plenty of tables of four, five and six under mood lighting on the cobblestone streets.