The Christmas Eve block comes into effect in Italy

Police took to the streets of Italy on Christmas Eve to enforce tough new Covid rules, close to the full lockdown imposed earlier this year.

People were forbidden to travel between regions to reunite with their families. Fines of up to £ 3,000 have been imposed for violations enforced by the police.

Meanwhile, shoppers were prohibited from leaving their homes without permission, although shops in Rome were still busy with people picking up last-minute goodies for their traditional Christmas celebrations.

The rules went into effect despite the decline in cases and deaths in Italy, despite approaching or exceeding their peak of the first wave in the fall months.

Police in Milan, located at the epicenter of Italy’s first wave of coronavirus, were in effect on Thursday, checking the reason people were out

People have been banned from traveling long distances to Italy over Christmas to reunite with their families. The police enforced the rules in Milan on Thursday

On Wednesday, Italy’s confirmed pandemic death toll passed 70,000, the highest in Europe.

The number of confirmed cases was on track to exceed 2 million on Thursday.

Italians lined up in bakeries, fish markets, and grocery stores to prepare things needed to prepare Christmas dinner even when government officials asked families to limit their “cenone” meetings to no more than two people outside the main family unit.

Christmas Eve is traditionally a multi-course, multi-generational affair that is an integral part of Italian family life over the holidays.

“It seems mundane and you can ask, ‘Why only two people outside the nuclear family? “Confirmed Dr. Giovanni Rezza, who is in charge of prevention at the Italian Ministry of Health.

“But it’s clearly based on probabilistic calculations: the more you enlarge the congregation, the greater the risk that one of these people, especially if they’re from a different location, can become infected and therefore pose a risk to others.”

To reduce this possibility, the government banned residents from traveling from region to region from Monday. Police were in place on Thursday to check that Italians on the streets were following rules restricting travel in their own regions.

Carabinieri Col. Alessandro Dominici, who was on patrol outside the Colosseum in Rome, said penalties would range from € 400 to € 3,000 ($ 488 to $ 3,700) and could increase for multiple crimes.

Residents were also required to carry police-issued certificates stating why they were outside. Work, health care, and other necessities such as grocery shopping were allowed.

But last minute shopping trips proved crowded on Christmas Eve.

Buyers in Rome lined up outside the markets to pick up pre-ordered fish, which is the backbone of traditional holiday food in much of southern Italy.

The bakeries sold vibrant panettone dried fruit cakes or pale yellow Pandoro cakes, dusted with powdered sugar, staples for Christmas desserts.

“Yesterday, 900 people were stacked on top of each other in the fish department,” said Daniela Tufoni, who works in a supermarket in Rome.

Tufoni said police officers stopped her Thursday to see if she had a legitimate reason to be outside.

“It’s good that you are doing these checks, but when you go to the supermarket I can’t tell you what you will find,” she said from her car. “Nobody respects the distancing.”

The Catholic churches have postponed the times of the midnight mass by a few hours so that the parishioners could observe a 10 p.m. Curfew.

Pope Francis planned to celebrate his Christmas service from 7:30 p.m. in front of a small group in St.

Unnecessary shops, restaurants and bars were closed: Milan’s Galleria shopping center with its glass dome was almost empty, shops along the normally congested Via del Corso in Rome were closed, and the pigeons had St. Mark’s Square in Venice to themselves.

Restaurants and shops are expected to reopen for a few days next week before closing again before the New Year and Epiphany, the end of the embargo.

Buyers were also banned from leaving their homes without permission, as happened during the country’s first wave and many major streets remained deserted