Italy is hard hit by the corona virus. The government in Rome takes tough measures and has quarantined almost the entire north of the country. In South Tyrol, tourism suffers the most.
Joachim Nischler is a pretty active guy. The boss of the Hotel Lindenhof in the small holiday resort Naturno in northern Italy near the Austrian border is passionate about hiking, mountain biking and is a certified racing bike guide. In the coming weeks he will have a lot of time for his hobbies. He closes his hotel.
South Tyrol has been declared a risk area
"Because of the corona virus", as he says in a conversation with Deutsche Welle (DW): "We have nothing more to do. The situation is really very sad, the guests stay away or cancel. We usually make 50 to 60 bookings a day "We have no bookings at the moment. We cannot currently cover the fixed costs at the back and front."
At the end of last week, the Robert Koch Institute also declared South Tyrol to be a coronavirus risk area. Hotelier Nischler fears bad long-term damage to the regional economy: "The employees in the tourism industry who have to be laid off are the first to suffer from the crisis. Then it is the suppliers and handicraft companies that are no longer receiving orders. If all of these The retail trade is also affected by the fact that people shop and consume less, especially because the guests also stay away. "
And that is exactly what is to be expected. As the association of hoteliers and innkeepers announced on Monday afternoon in a press release, the entire skiing season in South Tyrol is being ended early due to the coronavirus crisis. From Wednesday, all guest establishments and cable car operators will close until at least April 3.
Impact on public life
The association's clear decision is part of a long list of drastic decisions currently being made in Italy. As of Monday afternoon, there were 7,375 confirmed infections and 366 deaths from the corona virus.
Officially, it is the second highest number of deaths after China, where the epidemic broke out in December. After all universities and schools had been closed by mid-March last week, the government in Rome has now declared a large part of the north, the economic heart of the country, to be a so-called "red zone".
16 million people in the Lombardy region with the metropolis of Milan and in cities such as Venice or Parma are only allowed to get out of or into the area for justifiable reasons. All cinemas, theaters, museums, sports clubs, demonstrations have to close or fail.
Sights such as the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums are closed until further notice. Anyone who violates the strict conditions must face severe penalties: Up to three months in prison and fines of 260 euros.
Daniela Zadra is the director of the spa administration in Merano, South Tyrol. The interventions would have a direct impact on daily life, as she told DW: Operators of "bars and restaurants have to put the tables apart, ensure that there is a space of at least one meter between the guests."
The espresso at the bar, which is so typical for Italy, will probably also be eliminated. According to Zadra, one could only get seats, no standing room at the bar: "Large meetings are avoided in offices, a lot is discussed by phone and email."
Financial claims on Brussels
While measures against the corona virus are discussed controversially but moderately in Germany, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is arming verbally. He sees the spread of the corona virus as a "national emergency".
In an interview with one of the country's most important daily newspapers, "La Repubblica", he said on Monday that cordoning off regions in the north of the country would not be the last measure to curb the corona virus. "We will use all human and economic means to get out of this crisis."
He hopes for Brussels to solve financial bottlenecks. The strict European debt rules would have to be relaxed in order to provide financial scope. The flexibility that the EU budget rules allowed must be fully exploited.
Press releases from the Ministry of Justice showed on Monday that the government's measures are not being taken peacefully everywhere. As part of its measures to contain the virus, the government had restricted the direct contact between prisoners and their relatives in prison by emergency decree.
As a result, riots broke out in several detention centers and a total of six inmates were killed. Fires were also set in several detention centers. The prison police union spoke in the afternoon of riots in 27 detention centers across the country.
"Break the chain of infection"
The small holiday resort Naturno near the Austrian border is far from such dramatic excesses. Hotelier Joachim Nischler has so far not seen any hamster purchases or major panic attacks among the locals in town.
At least some of the guests were unsettled over the past few days: "One of our female guests was so afraid of being infected that she didn't even get to the reception. She didn't come to dinner in the evening either. We then ate the food in brought a trolley to her room, went and called her, so we could make sure she wasn't in touch with us. "
Nischler himself sees the government's strict measures very positively. They had a few weeks until the start of the high season around the Easter holidays. Until then: "We have to defeat the virus, we have to break the chain of infection completely."
Author: Daniel Heinrich