title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined

text: Sometime later, the Quileute wolves confront the Cullens, believing them responsible for Beau's death. Beau and the Cullens manage to convince the wolves to believe the truth after a conversation with tribal elder Bonnie Black. When the wind blows Bonnie's scent to Beau, he manages to stay in control of himself, much to Edythe and Carine's surprise. With everything resolved, Beau and Edythe are free to enjoy their love together "forever" and get married in the future.


title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined

text: Common Sense Media gave the book 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "This reimagined "Twilight" with swapped genders (Bella is Beau, Edward is Edythe) and most of the same content will primarily interest Twi-hards and anyone in a gender studies class." Student-run "The Yorker" magazine gave the book a negative review, writing that "the stench of a quick money-making scheme was quite potent." Book blogger Jessica at Books: A True Story awarded the book 4 out of 5 stars but noted "a lot of the book is copied and pasted" from "Twilight". Sara Dobie Bauer, writing for SheKnows.com, called the "recycled story" a "shameless cash cow."


title: New York Harbor

text: New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world, and is frequently named the best natural harbor in the world. It is also known as Upper New York Bay, which is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey, municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne. The name may also refer to the entirety of New York Bay including Lower New York Bay. Although the United States Board on Geographic Names does not use the term, "New York Harbor" has important historical, governmental, commercial, and ecological usages.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor is fed by the waters of the Hudson River (historically called the North River as it passes Manhattan), as well as the Gowanus Canal. It is connected to Lower New York Bay by the Narrows, to Newark Bay by the Kill Van Kull, and to Long Island Sound by the East River, which, despite its name, is actually a tidal strait. It provides the main passage for the waters of the Hudson River as it empties through the Narrows. The channel of the Hudson as it passes through the harbor is called the Anchorage Channel and is approximately 50 feet deep in the midpoint of the harbor.


title: New York Harbor

text: A project to replace two water mains between Brooklyn and Staten Island, which will eventually allow for dredging of the channel to nearly , was begun in April 2012.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor contains several islands including Governors Island, near the mouth of the East River, as well Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and Robbins Reef which are supported by a large underwater reef on the New Jersey side of the harbor. The reef was historically one of the largest oyster beds in the world and provided a staple for the diet of all classes of citizens both locally and regionally until the end of the 19th century, when the beds succumbed to pollution.


title: New York Harbor

text: Historically, it has played an extremely important role in the commerce of the New York metropolitan area. The Statue of Liberty National Monument recalls the immigrant experience during the late 19th and early 20th century.


title: New York Harbor

text: Since the 1950s, container ship traffic has been primarily routed through the Kill Van Kull to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, where it is consolidated for easier automated transfer to land conveyance. As a consequence, the waterfront industries of the Harbor experienced a decline leading to diverse plans for revitalization, though important maritime uses remain at Red Hook, Port Jersey, MOTBY, Constable Hook, and parts of the Staten Island shore. Liberty State Park opened in 1976. In recent years, it has become a popular site for recreation sailing and kayaking.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor is traversed by the Staten Island Ferry, which runs between Whitehall Street at the southernmost tip of Manhattan near Battery Park (South Ferry) and St. George Ferry Terminal on Richmond Terrace in Staten Island near Richmond County Borough Hall and Richmond County Supreme Court. NY Waterway operates routes across the bay and through The Narrows to locations near Sandy Hook.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor supports a very diverse population of marine species, allowing for recreational fishing, most commonly for striped bass and bluefish.


title: New York Harbor

text: The original population of the 16th century New York Harbor, the Lenape, used the waterways for fishing and travel. In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano anchored in what is now called the Narrows, the strait between Staten Island and Long Island that connects the Upper and Lower New York Bay, where he received a canoe party of Lenape. A party of his sailors may have taken on fresh water at a spring called "the watering place" on Staten Island—a monument stands in a tiny park on the corner of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard at the approximate spot—but Verrazzano's descriptions of the geography of the area are a bit ambiguous. It is fairly firmly held by historians that his ship anchored at the approximate location of the modern Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's approach viaduct in Brooklyn. He also observed what he believed to be a large freshwater lake to the north (apparently Upper New York Bay). He apparently did not travel north to observe the existence of the Hudson River. In 1609 Henry Hudson entered the Harbor and explored a stretch of the river that now bears his name. His journey prompted others to explore the region and engage in trade with the local population.


title: New York Harbor

text: The first permanent European settlement was started on Governors Island in 1624, and in Brooklyn eight years after that; soon these were connected by ferry operation.


title: New York Harbor

text: The colonial Dutch Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, ordered construction of the first wharf on the Manhattan bank of the lower East River sheltered from winds and ice, which was completed late in 1648 and called Schreyers Hook Dock (near what is now Pearl and Broad Streets). This prepared New York as a leading port for the British colonies and then within the newly independent United States.


title: New York Harbor

text: In 1808, Lieutenant Thomas Gedney of the United States Coast Survey discovered a new, deeper channel through the Narrows into New York Harbor. Previously, the passage was complex and shallow enough that loaded ships would wait outside the harbor until high tide, to avoid running into the huge sandbar, which was interrupted in a number of places by channels of fairly shallow depth: at low tide and at high tide. Because of the difficulty of the navigation required, since 1694, New York had required all ships to be guided into the harbor by an experienced pilot. The new channel Gedney discovered was deeper, enough of an added margin that fully laden ships could come into the harbor even at slack tide. Gedney's Channel, as it came to be called, was also shorter than the previous channel, another benefit appreciated by the ship owners and the merchants they sold to. Gedney received the praise of the city, as well as an expensive silver service.


title: New York Harbor

text: In her 1832 book "Domestic Manners of the Americans", Fanny Trollope wrote of her impressions upon entering New York Harbor for the first time:


title: New York Harbor

text: I have never seen the bay of Naples, I can therefore make no comparison, but my imagination is incapable of conceiving any thing of the kind more beautiful than the harbour of New York. Various and lovely are the objects which meet the eye on every side, but the naming them would only be to give a list of words, without conveying the faintest idea of the scene. I doubt if ever the pencil of Turner could do it justice, bright and glorious as it rose upon us. We seemed to enter the harbour of New York upon waves of liquid gold, and as we darted past the green isles which rise from its bosom, like guardian centinels of the fair city, the setting sun stretched his horizontal beams farther and farther at each moment, as if to point out to us some new glory in the landscape.


title: New York Harbor

text: In 1824 the first American drydock was completed on the East River. Because of its location and depth, the Port grew rapidly with the introduction of steamships; and then with the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal New York became the most important transshipping port between Europe and the interior of the United States, as well as coastwise destinations. By about 1840, more passengers and a greater tonnage of cargo came through the port of New York than all other major harbors in the country combined and by 1900 it was one of the great international ports. The Morris Canal carried anthracite and freight from Pennsylvania through New Jersey to its terminus at the mouth of the Hudson in Jersey City. Portions in the harbor are now part of Liberty State Park.


title: New York Harbor

text: In 1870, the city established the Department of Docks to systematize waterfront development, with George B. McClellan as the first engineer in chief. By the turn of the 20th century numerous railroad terminals lined the western banks of the North River (Hudson River) in Hudson County, New Jersey, transporting passengers and freight from all over the United States. The freight was ferried across by the competing railroads with small fleets of towboats, barges, and 323 car floats, specially designed barges with rails so cars could be rolled on. New York subsidized this service which undercut rival ports. Major road improvements allowing for trucking and containerization diminished the need.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor saw major federal investment at the end of the century when Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. Over $1.2 million of initial funding was appropriated for the dredging of 40 ft (12.2 m)-deep channels at Bay Ridge, Red Hook, and Sandy Hook.


title: New York Harbor

text: The Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World") stands on Liberty Island in the harbor, while the nearby main port of entry at Ellis Island processed 12 million arrivals from 1892 to 1954. The Statue of Liberty National Monument, encompassing both islands, recalls the period of massive immigration to the United States at the turn of the 20th century While many stayed in the region, others spread across America, with more than 10 million leaving from the nearby Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal.


title: New York Harbor

text: After the United States entered World War II, the German navy's Operation Drumbeat set the top U-boat aces loose against the merchant fleet in U.S. territorial waters in January 1942, starting the Second happy time. The U-boat captains were able to silhouette target ships against the glow of city lights, and attacked with relative impunity, in spite of U.S. naval concentrations within the Harbor. Casualties included the tankers "Coimbria" off Sandy Hook and "Norness" off Long Island. New York Harbor, as the major convoy embarkation point for the U.S., was effectively a staging area in the Battle of the Atlantic, with the U.S. Merchant Marine losses of 1 of 26 mariners, a rate exceeding those of the other U.S. forces.


title: New York Harbor

text: Bright city lights made it easier for German U-boats to spot targets at night, but local officials resisted suggestions that they follow London's lead and blackout the lights of coastal cities. However, some lights were darkened, including those of the amusement parks in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and the Coney Island Light, and Sandy Hook Lighthouse.


title: New York Harbor

text: The Harbor reached its peak activity in March 1943 during World War II, with 543 ships at anchor awaiting assignment to convoy or berthing (with as many as 426 seagoing vessel already at one of the 750 piers or docks). Eleven hundred warehouses with nearly of enclosed space served freight along with 575 tugboats and 39 active shipyards, the largest being Brooklyn Navy Yard. With a large inventory of heavy equipment, this made New York Harbor the busiest in the world.


title: New York Harbor

text: the responsibility of the bi-state Waterfront Commission. The commission was set up in 1953 (a year before the movie "On the Waterfront"), to combat labor racketeering. It is held that the Gambino crime family controlled the New York waterfront and the Genovese crime family controlled the New Jersey side. In 1984 the Teamsters local was put under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) trusteeship, and in 2005 a similar suit was brought against the International Longshoremen's Association local.


title: New York Harbor

text: In March 2006, the Port passenger facility was to be transferred to Dubai Ports World. There was considerable security controversy over the ownership by a foreign corporation, particularly Arabic, of a U.S. port operation, this in spite of the fact the current operator was the British-based P&O Ports, and the fact that Orient Overseas Investment Limited, a company dominated by a Chinese Communist official, has the operating contract for Howland Hook Marine Terminal. An additional concern is the U.S. Customs "green lane" program, in which trusted shippers have fewer containers inspected, providing easier access for contraband material.


title: New York Harbor

text: The water quality in New York Harbor has been affected by centuries of shipping activity, industrial development and urbanization. Water pollution from these sources has been a constant phenomenon, although there have been improvements in some areas of the harbor complex in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A 2019 study of the harbor identifies water quality trends in nine regions of the harbor, using data collected during 1996 to 2017. The Lower New York Bay region has the highest quality, due to frequent exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean. The poorest regions are those with limited exchange of water flows: Newtown Creek, Flushing Bay and Jamaica Bay. High levels of nutrient pollution (nitrogen and phosphorus) were observed throughout the various harbor regions, although there has been a general lowering trend in total nitrogen, and some other indicator parameters show improvements. The implementation of pollution control laws, cleanup programs and conservation measures throughout the region have begun to yield some improvements, and the authors state that "the New York Harbor ecosystem is much healthier than it was 30 years ago."


title: New York Harbor

text: The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest oil importing port and third largest container port in the nation. The commercial activity of the port of New York City, including the waterfronts of the five boroughs and nearby cities in New Jersey, since 1921 has been formalized under a single bi-state Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Since the 1950s, the New York and Brooklyn commercial port has been almost completely eclipsed by the container ship facility at nearby Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in Newark Bay, which is the largest such port on the Eastern Seaboard. The port has diminished in importance to passenger travel, but the Port Authority operates all three major airports, La Guardia (built 1939) and JFK/Idlewild (built 1948) in New York, and Newark (built 1928) in New Jersey.


title: New York Harbor

text: The harbor is still served by cruise lines, commuter ferries, and tourist excursion boats. Although most ferry service is private, the Staten Island Ferry is operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. Passenger ship facilities are New York Passenger Ship Terminal, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at Red Hook, and MOTBY at Bayonne.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: St. Lawrence Island (, ) is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait. The village of Gambell, located on the northwest cape of the island, is from the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The island is part of Alaska, but closer to Russia than to the Alaskan mainland. St. Lawrence Island is thought to be one of the last exposed portions of the land bridge that once joined Asia with North America during the Pleistocene period. It is the sixth largest island in the United States and the 113th largest island in the world. It is considered part of the Bering Sea Volcanic Province. The Saint Lawrence Island shrew ("Sorex jacksoni") is a species of shrew endemic to St. Lawrence Island.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The United States Census Bureau defines St. Lawrence Island as Block Group 6, Census Tract 1 of Nome Census Area, Alaska. As of the 2000 census there were 1,292 people living on a land area of . The island is about long and wide. The island has no trees, and the only woody plants are Arctic willow, standing no more than a foot (30 cm) high.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The island's abundance of seabirds and marine mammals is due largely to the influence of the Anadyr Current, an ocean current which brings cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep waters of the Bering Sea shelf edge.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: To the south of the island there was a persistent polynya in 1999, formed when the prevailing winds from the north and east blow the migrating ice away from the coast.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The island contains two villages: Savoonga and Gambell. The two villages were given title to most of the land on St. Lawrence Island by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. As a result of having title to the land, the Yupik are legally able to sell the fossilized ivory and other artifacts found on St. Lawrence Island.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The island is now inhabited mostly by Siberian Yupik engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. The St. Lawrence Island Yupik people are also known for their skill in carving, mostly with materials from marine mammals (walrus ivory and whale bone). The Arctic yo-yo may have evolved on the island. Anthropologist Lars Krutak has examined the tattoo traditions of the St. Lawrence Yupik.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: St. Lawrence Island was first occupied around 2,000 to 2,500 years ago by coastal people characterized by artifacts decorated in the Okvik (oogfik) style. Archaeological sites on the Punuk Islands, off the eastern end of St. Lawrence Island, at Kukulik, near Savoonga and on the hill slopes above Gambell have evidence of the Okvik occupation. The Okvik decorative style is zoomorphic and elaborate, executed in a sometimes crude engraving technique, with greater variation than the Old Bering Sea and Punuk styles.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The Okvik occupation is influenced by and may have been coincident with the Old Bering Sea occupation of 2000 years ago to around 700 years ago, characterized by the simpler and more homogeneous Punuk style. Stone artifacts changed from chipped stone to ground slate; carved ivory harpoon heads are smaller and simpler in design.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: Prehistoric and early historic occupations of St. Lawrence Island were never permanent, with periods of abandonment and reoccupation depending on resource availability and changes in weather patterns. Famine was common, as evidenced by Harris lines and enamel hypoplasia in human skeletons. Travel to and from the mainland was common during calm weather, so the island was used as a hunting base, and occupation sites were re-used periodically rather than permanently occupied.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: Major archaeology sites at Gambell and Savoonga (Kukulik) were excavated by Otto Geist and Ivar Skarland of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Collections from these excavations are curated at the University of Alaska Museum on the UAF campus.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The island is called "Sivuqaq" by the Yupik who live there. It was visited by Russian/Danish explorer Vitus Bering on St. Lawrence's Day, August 10, 1728, and named after the day of his visit. The island was the first place in Alaska known to have been visited by European explorers.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: There were about 4,000 Central Alaskan Yupik and Siberian Yupik living in several villages on the island in the mid-19th century. They subsisted by hunting walrus and whale and by fishing. The famine in 1878–1880 caused many to starve and many others to leave, decimating the island's population. A revenue cutter visited the island in 1880 and estimated that out of 700 inhabitants, 500 were found dead of starvation. Reports of the day put the blame on traders' supplying the people with liquor causing the people to ″neglect laying up their usual supply of provisions″. Nearly all the residents remaining were Siberian Yupik.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: Reindeer were introduced on the island in 1900 in an attempt to bolster the economy. The reindeer herd grew to about 10,000 animals by 1917, but has since declined. Reindeer are herded as a source of subsistence meat to this day. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt established a reindeer reservation on the island. This caused legal issues in the indigenous land claim process to acquire surface and subsurface rights to their land, under the section 19 of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) as they had to prove that the reindeer reserve was set up to support the indigenous people rather than to protect the reindeer themselves.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: During World War II, islanders served in the Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG). Following disbandment of the ATG in 1947, and with the construction of Northeast Cape Air Force Station in 1952, many islanders joined the Alaska National Guard to provide for the defense of the island and station.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: On June 22, 1955, during the Cold War, a US Navy P2V Neptune with a crew of 11 was attacked by two Soviet Air Forces fighter aircraft along the International Date Line in international waters over the Bering Straits, between Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The P2V crashed on the island's northwest cape, near the village of Gambell. Villagers rescued the crew, 3 of whom were wounded by Soviet fire and 4 of whom were injured in the crash. The Soviet government, in response to a US diplomatic protest, was unusually conciliatory, stating that:


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The Soviet military was under strict orders to "avoid any action beyond the limits of the Soviet state frontiers."


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The Soviet government "expressed regret in regard to the incident," and, "taking into account... conditions which do not exclude the possibility of a mistake from one side or the other," was willing to compensate the US for 50% of damages sustained—the first such offer ever made by the Soviets for any Cold War shoot-down incident.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: The US government stated that it was satisfied with the Soviet expression of regret and the offer of partial compensation, although it said that the Soviet statement also fell short of what the available information indicated.


title: St. Lawrence Island

text: Northeast Cape Air Force Station, at the island's other end, was a United States Air Force facility consisting of an Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) radar site, a United States Air Force Security Service listening post; and a White Alice Communications System (WACS) site that operated from about 1952 to about 1972. The area surrounding the Northeast Cape base site had been a traditional camp site for several Yupik families for centuries. After the base closed down in the 1970s, many of these people started to experience health problems. Even today, people who grew up at Northeast Cape have high rates of cancer and other diseases, possibly due to PCB exposure around the site. According to the State of Alaska, those elevated cancer rates have been shown to be comparable to the rates of other Alaskan and non-Alaskan arctic natives who were not exposed to a similar Air Force facility. The majority of the facility was removed in a $10.5 million cleanup program in 2003. Monitoring of the site will continue into the future.


title: American burlesque

text: American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in America in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.


title: American burlesque

text: The term "burlesque" more generally means a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. Burlesque in literature and in theatre through the 19th century was intentionally ridiculous in that it imitated several styles and combined imitations of certain authors and artists with absurd descriptions. Burlesque depended on the reader's (or listener's) knowledge of the subject to make its intended effect, and a high degree of literacy was taken for granted.


title: American burlesque

text: Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as "travesty" or "extravaganza", was popular in London theatres between the 1830s and the 1890s. It took the form of musical theatre parody in which a well-known opera, play or ballet was adapted into a broad comic play, usually a musical play, often risqué in style, mocking the theatrical and musical conventions and styles of the original work, and quoting or pastiching text or music from the original work. The comedy often stemmed from the incongruity and absurdity of the classical subjects, with realistic historical dress and settings, being juxtaposed with the modern activities portrayed by the actors. The dialogue was generally written in rhyming couplets, liberally peppered with bad puns. A typical example from a burlesque of "Macbeth": Macbeth and Banquo enter under an umbrella, and the witches greet them with "Hail! hail! hail!" Macbeth asks Banquo, "What mean these salutations, noble thane?" and is told, "These showers of 'Hail' anticipate your 'reign'". A staple of theatrical burlesque was the display of attractive women in travesty roles, dressed in tights to show off their legs, but the plays themselves were seldom more than modestly risqué.


title: American burlesque

text: There were three main influences on American burlesque in its early years: Victorian burlesque, "leg shows" and minstrel shows. British-style burlesques had been successfully presented in New York as early as the 1840s.


title: American burlesque

text: Burlesque in the United States is believed to have begun in New York with the arrival from England of Lydia Thompson's burlesque troupe, "The British Blondes". It was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season: "The eccentricities of pantomime and burlesque – with their curious combination of comedy, parody, satire, improvisation, song and dance, variety acts, cross-dressing, extravagant stage effects, risqué jokes and saucy costumes – while familiar enough to British audiences, took New York by storm." Unfortunately, “the female audiences for burlesque did not last for long. In the summer of 1869 a wave of ‘anti-burlesque hysteria’ in the New York press frightened away the middle-class audiences ... and sent the Thompson troupe prematurely packing for a national tour”. After this untimely closure, backlash against burlesque continued to grow. Thompson's shows were described as a “disgraceful spectacle of padded legs jiggling and wriggling in the insensate follies and indecencies of the hour”. The "New York Times" consistently expressed its disgust of burlesque, even headlining an article with the plea “Exit British Burlesque”.


title: American burlesque

text: "Leg" shows, such as the musical extravaganza "The Black Crook" (1866), became popular around the same time. The influence of the minstrel show soon followed; one of the first American burlesque troupes was the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, created in 1870 by Michael B. Leavitt, who had earlier feminized the minstrel show with his group Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels. American burlesque rapidly adopted the minstrel show's tripartite structure: part one was composed of songs and dances rendered by a female company, interspersed with low comedy from male comedians. Part two featured various short specialties and olios in which the women did not appear. The show's finish was a grand finale. Sometimes the entertainment was followed by a boxing or wrestling match.


title: American burlesque

text: ‘From 1880 to 1890 burlesque gained considerably in popularity and had developed into a definite form of entertainment, with a first part, olio and afterpiece or burlesque. Most of the shows that were rated as burlesque shows between 1870 and 1880 were partly of the minstrel type, and many contained casts entirely composed of women. Among the shows organized from 1880 to 1890 were the Ida Siddon’s Female Mastodons & Burlesque Co.—Sam T. Jack’s “Lily Clay’s" Adamless Eden Gaiety Co.—Lillie Hall’s Burlesquers—Madame Girard Gyer’s English Novelty Co.—Bob Manchester’s “Night Owls"—May Howard’s Co. (managed by Harry Morris, her husband and Tom Miaco)—the “City Club,” organized by the same managers—Sam T. Jack’s “Creole Burlesquers,” an all-negro show—Fay Foster Co., organized by Joe Oppenheimer—Rose Hill English Folly Co., managed by George W. Rice and Charles Barton—Weber and Fields’ Vaudeville Club—John S. Grieves’ Burlesquers—Boom’s “Model Burlesquers,”—“Parisian Folly”—and John H. Smiths’ “Henry Burlesquers,” in which McIntyre and Heath appeared.’


title: American burlesque

text: Burlesque in the first two decades of the 20th century was dominated by the Columbia Amusement Company. Also known as the Columbia Wheel, it produced over three dozen touring shows each year that rotated through an equal number of affiliated theaters. Columbia crushed smaller circuits or bought them outright, and organized a subsidiary circuit, the American Wheel, which played less prominent theaters and didn't censor performers as strictly as the main wheel. Before World War I, Columbia burlesque was generally family-friendly. Performers included Bert Lahr, Fannie Brice, and Bobby Clark, Leon Errol, and Jay C. Flippen, all of whom eventually left burlesque for Broadway musical comedies and revues.


title: American burlesque

text: Columbia's American Wheel subsidiary went bankrupt in 1922, but executives and producers formed a new, independent circuit, Mutual, that took inspiration from modern Broadway revues like Earl Carroll's Vanities and the Ziegfeld Follies. Many performers and producers abandoned Columbia, which was seen as old-fashioned and in decline. At its peak, Mutual sent up to 50 shows on the road each year to cycle through as many affiliated theaters. Mutual's shows were more risque than Columbia's, but not as racy as shows mounted by local stock burlesque theaters such as the Minskys at the National Winter Garden on the Lower East Side. The popular burlesque show of this period eventually evolved into the striptease which became the dominant ingredient of burlesque by the mid 1920s. The transition from traditional burlesque to striptease is depicted in the film "The Night They Raided Minsky's" (1968). Several performers claimed or have been given credit for being the first stripteaser. Comedians Bud Abbott, Lou Costello (not yet a team), Harry Steppe, Joe Penner, Billy Gilbert, and Rags Ragland, as well as stripteasers Ann Corio, Hinda Wausau, and Gypsy Rose Lee performed in Mutual shows.


title: American burlesque

text: Mutual collapsed in 1931 during the Great Depression. As legitimate Broadway shows closed, stock burlesque impresarios like the Minskys expanded out of working class neighborhoods and into theaters in and around Times Square. Stock burlesque companies multiplied in other cities and snatched up former Mutual talent. By the late 1930s, clergy, anti-vice factions and local businesses cracked down on burlesque and began its downfall. Shows had changed from ribald ensemble performances of skits and musical numbers to a succession of solo stripteasers. In New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia clamped down on burlesque beginning in 1937 and effectively put it out of business by the early 1940s. Burlesque lingered on elsewhere in the U.S., increasingly neglected, and by the 1970s, with nudity commonplace in theatres, American burlesque reached "its final shabby demise".


title: American burlesque

text: Burlesque performances originally included comic sketches lampooning authority, the upper classes and high art, such as opera, Shakespearean drama, and classical ballet. The genre developed alongside vaudeville and ran on competing circuits. Possibly due to historical social tensions between the upper classes and lower classes of society, much of the humor and entertainment of later American burlesque focused on lowbrow and ribald subjects. In 1937, Epes W. Sargent wrote in Variety that, "Burlesque is elastic; more so, perhaps, than any other form in theatrical entertainment", meaning that burlesque performers didn't need to perform in a certain way. The performers could structure their show how they wanted.


title: American burlesque

text: Charlie Chaplin (who starred in the 1915 film "Burlesque on Carmen") noted in 1910: "Chicago ... had a fierce pioneer gaiety that enlivened the senses, yet underlying it throbbed masculine loneliness. Counteracting this somatic ailment was a national distraction known as the burlesque show, consisting of a coterie of rough-and-tumble comedians supported by twenty or more chorus girls. Some were pretty, others shopworn. Some of the comedians were funny, most of the shows were smutty harem comedies – coarse and cynical affairs".


title: American burlesque

text: Burlesque shows have been depicted in numerous Hollywood films starting with "Applause", a 1929 black-and-white backstage musical talkie directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Others include "King of Burlesque" (1936), starring Warner Baxter; "Lady of Burlesque" (1943) starring Barbara Stanwyck; "Delightfully Dangerous" (1945) starring Constance Moore; "Two Sisters from Boston" (1946), starring Kathryn Grayson; "Queen of Burlesque" (1946), starring Evelyn Ankers; "Linda, Be Good" (1947), starring Elyse Knox; and "She's Working Her Way Through College" (1952), starring Virginia Mayo. "Gypsy" (1962), starring Natalie Wood, and "The Night They Raided Minsky's" (1968), starring Jason Robards, depicted burlesque of the 1920s and 1930s. Other films that include burlesque characters include "Ball of Fire", a 1941 screwball comedy starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Additionally, many of the comedies of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello feature classic burlesque routines, such as "The Lemon Table," "Crazy House," and "Slowly I Turned/Niagra Falls."


title: American burlesque

text: Low-budget documentations of extant burlesque shows began with "Hollywood Revels" (1946), where a regular production was staged in a theater and photographed from a distance. In 1947, film producer W. Merle Connell re-staged the action in a studio, where he could control the camerawork, lighting and sound, providing close-ups and other studio photographic and editorial techniques. His 1951 production "French Follies" recreates a classic American burlesque presentation. Some figures from the 1950s indicate that burlesque films could cost upwards of $50,000 to produce, but Dan Sonney states that most only cost about $15,000 because they were shot quickly and often done in less than a day. Others filmed at the Follies Theatre in Los Angeles include "Too Hot to Handle" (1950), and "Kiss Me Baby" (1957).


title: American burlesque

text: Later, other producers entered the field, using color photography and even location work. "Naughty New Orleans" (1954) is an example of burlesque entertainment on film, equally showcasing girls and gags, although it shifts the venue from a burlesque-house stage to a popular nightclub. Photographer Irving Klaw filmed a very profitable series of burlesque features, usually featuring star pin-up girl Bettie Page and various lowbrow comedians (including future TV star Joe E. Ross). Page's most famous features are "Striporama" (1953), "Varietease" (1954) and "Teaserama" (1955). These films, as their titles imply, were only teasing the viewer: the girls wore revealing costumes, but there was never any nudity. In the late 1950s, however, provocative films emerged, sometimes using a "nudist colony" format, and the relatively tame burlesque-show film died out.


title: American burlesque

text: A Broadway musical called "Burlesque" opened September 1, 1927 and ran until July 14, 1928. "Top Banana", a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft and starring Phil Silvers premiered on Broadway in 1951. The original Broadway production of "Gypsy" opened on May 21, 1959 and closed on March 25, 1961 after 702 performances. In 1962, famed strip teaser Ann Corio put together a nostalgic off-Broadway show, "This Was Burlesque", which she directed and in which also performed. (In 1968, she wrote a book with the same title.) Corio's show toured for almost two decades. In 1979, the Broadway musical "Sugar Babies", recreated a Mutual-era show. A loose stage adaptation of The Night They Raided Minsky's, called "Minsky's", opened on February 6, 2009, at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, and ran three weeks. A 2013 play, "The Nance," written by Douglas Carter Beane, focuses on a camp stock character in a 1930s burlesque troupe.


title: American burlesque

text: A new generation nostalgic for the spectacle and perceived glamour of the old times determined to bring burlesque back. This revival was pioneered independently in the early 1990s by Billie Madley's "Cinema" and later with Ami Goodheart in "Dutch Weismann's Follies" revues in New York, Michelle Carr's "The Velvet Hammer" troupe in Los Angeles, and The Shim-Shamettes in New Orleans. Ivan Kane's Royal Jelly Burlesque Nightclub at Revel Atlantic City opened in 2012. Inspired by old time stars like Sally Rand, Tempest Storm, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Lili St. Cyr, more recent performers include Dita Von Teese, Julie Atlas Muz, and Anne McDonald. Agitprop groups such as Cabaret Red Light have included political satire and performance art in their acts.


title: American burlesque

text: Today, Neo-Burlesque has taken many forms, but all have the common trait of honoring one or more of burlesque's previous incarnations, with acts including striptease, expensive costumes, bawdy humor, cabaret, and comedy/variety acts. Although neo-burlesque acts honor previous acts, they often lack elements of parody, and political commentary that was commonplace in traditional burlesque. There are modern burlesque performers and shows all over the world, and annual conventions such as the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, the New York Burlesque Festival created by burlesque star Angie Pontani and Jen Gapay, and the Miss Exotic World Pageant are held. In 2008, "The New York Times" noted that burlesque had made a comeback in the city's art performance scene.


title: American burlesque

text: A 2010 musical film "Burlesque", starring Christina Aguilera and Cher, attempted to capitalize on the current revival of burlesque. However, it received mixed reviews and a score of 37% on movie website Rotten Tomatoes.<ref name="http://www.rottentomatoes.com"></ref> Critics found it "perversely tame" and "closer to your grandmother’s fan dance than to the neo-burlesque revues that began popping up in the early 1990s". Additionally, it "wags its derrière, in the direction of new burlesque, but it’s strictly old school ... with a story line that had already gathered dust by ... 1933."


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: Liebe ist für alle da (, "Love is there for everyone"), often abbreviated to LIFAD, is the sixth studio album by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released through Universal Music in Europe on 16 October 2009, the United Kingdom on 19 October 2009, and the United States on 20 October 2009.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: This would be the band's last album for nearly a decade, until the release of their untitled follow-up album in May 2019.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: The album title was confirmed on 1 September 2009 in a promotional video for the new single "Pussy", released on 18 September 2009 in the European Union and 19 September 2009 in the United States. The single's B-side was "Rammlied". The video for "Pussy" was released on the adult website Visit-X two days before the single. The video features scenes of explicit male and female nudity as well as the band members (played by body doubles in the nude scenes) engaging in sexual activity with women. In June 2009, a demo version of the title track, "Liebe ist für alle da", leaked onto the internet, along with various promotional materials. Pictures taken throughout the recording of the album were later made available on Rammstein's official website. The album was released on 16 October 2009 in Europe and 20 October in the U.S.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: Guitarist Paul Landers stated that tracks which did not make it on the album would appear as B-sides on singles and that there would be a special edition of the album with five bonus tracks On 8 November 2009, Rammstein played their first show for their Liebe ist für alle da Tour in Lisbon, Portugal – their first live show in four years. As announced, a video was shot for the album's third single, "Haifisch", which premiered on the band's MySpace page on 23 April 2010. "Waidmanns Heil" is a playable track in the rhythm video game "". In February of 2012 a total of 26 demos recorded during the recording sessions of the Album were leaked onto the Internet. In Addition to the demos of Songs already released on the Album there were also the demo versions of two at the time unreleased songs, titled "Schenk mir Was" and "Rassmus" respectively. "Schenk mir Was" would be retitled as "Gib mir deine Augen", had some slight changes made to the lyrics and was ultimately released in December of 2012 as a B-side of the Mein Herz brennt single. For "Rassmus" the lyrics were re-arranged, the original musical composition was entirely scrapped and replaced with a new one and the song was released officially in May of 2019 on the Band's Untitled seventh album under the name "Was ich liebe". In 2013, the song "Führe mich" was featured in Lars von Trier's film "Nymphomaniac".


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: "Liebe ist für alle da" was certified platinum in Finland before its release, solely from pre-release sales. It debuted at number 3 in the French charts. The album also reached number 13 on the US charts, making it Rammstein's highest-charting album in the United States, although it subsequently fell off after four weeks. In Germany, the album entered the charts at number 1 after the best start of a music album in 2009 and beating popular German R&B singer Xavier Naidoo's new album "Alles kann besser werden". It remained high in the charts until it was censored.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: The album was added to the 'index' of the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in Germany, due to the track "Ich tu dir weh" and a picture inside the album booklet displaying Richard Kruspe spanking a nude woman. The Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Ursula von der Leyen, was in charge of the request to ban and rate the Rammstein album. This meant only adults could purchase the album; additionally, it could not be displayed in stores that are accessible for minors (see BPjM for details). As a consequence, the album was re-released in Germany on 16 November in an edited version without the song and the picture. The band still played the instrumental version of the song live in Germany until it was also banned from live performances.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: Despite the censorship, the video for "Ich tu dir weh" was released on 21 December 2009 on the adult website Visit-X, after advertisement on the band's official website. Any references have since been deleted, presumably following German law prohibiting advertisement for media on the 'index'.


title: Liebe ist für alle da

text: On 31 May 2010, the administrative court in Cologne decided to waive the suspensive effect of the censorship. The German department deleted the record from the censorship lists on 1 June. On 9 June, the band announced on their official website that the original version of the album was available at their shop and that a release of the single "Ich tu dir weh" in Germany was planned in a short period of time. The single was eventually released on 5 February 2010 and in the UK on 15 February 2010.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: The Philippines consist of numerous upland and lowland indigenous ethnolinguistic groups living in the country, with Austronesians making up the overwhelming majority, while full or partial Negritos scattered throughout the archipelago. The highland Austronesians and Negrito have co-existed with their lowland Austronesian kin and neighbor groups for thousands of years in the Philippine archipelago. The primary difference is that they were not absorbed by centuries of Spanish and United States colonization of the Philippines, and in the process have retained their customs and traditions. This is mainly due to the rugged inaccessibility of the mountains and established headhunting and warrior cultures, which discouraged Spanish and American colonizers from coming into contact with the highlanders.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: In the interest of clarity, the term "indigenous" as used in the Philippines refers to ethnolinguistic groups or subgroups that maintain lt of partial isolation, or independence, throughout the colonial era. The term "indigenous" when applied to the Philippine population can be a deceptive misnomer, connoting alien migrant populations who have over time become the majority ethnolinguistic and cultural group in the land and thereby pushing indigens to the fringes of socio-cultural inclusion, such as in the Americas, Middle East, Australia, or New Zealand. Contrarily, the vast majority of people in the Philippines descend from the same Austronesian ancestral populations indigenous to the archipelago, regardless of cultural, religious, ethnolinguistic or tribal affiliations. (Ethnic groups in the Philippines). In the context of Philippine population, the term is used to refer to a group of people who have retained their culture away from the Christianized lowland culture of Filipinos whose population, though, overwhelmingly Austronesian, had partial mestizos, Insulares and Chinese population, and is characterized by a hybrid of east and west culture.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: Culturally-indigenous peoples of northern Philippine highlands can be grouped into the "Igorot" (comprising many different groups) and singular "Bugkalot" groups, while the non-Muslim culturally-indigenous groups of mainland Mindanao are collectively called "Lumad". Australo-Melanesian groups throughout the archipelago are termed "Aeta", "Ita", "Ati", "Dumagat", among others. Numerous culturally-indigenous groups also live outside these two indigenous corridors.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: According to the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, there are 135 recognized local indigenous Austronesian languages in the Philippines, of which one (Tagalog) is vehicular and each of the remaining 134 is vernacular. There are 134 ethnic groups in the Philippines, the majority of which are indigenous, though much of the overall Philippine population is constituted by only 8-10 lowland ethnic groups.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: In the 1990s, there were more than 100 highland tribal groups constituting approximately 3% of the population. The upland tribal groups were a blend in ethnic origin, like those in lowland areas of the country, although the upland tribal groups do not interact nor intermingle with the latter.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: Because they displayed a variety of social organization, cultural expression and artistic skills. They showed a high degree of creativity, usually employed to embellish utilitarian objects, such as bowls, baskets, clothing, weapons and spoons. The tribal groups of the Philippines are known for their carved wooden figures, baskets, weaving, pottery and weapons.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: These groups ranged from various Igorot tribes, a group that includes the Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanaey and Tinguian, who built the Rice Terraces. They also covered a wide spectrum in terms of their integration and acculturation with lowland Christian Filipinos. Native groups such as the Bukidnon in Mindanao, had intermarried with lowlanders for almost a century. Other groups such as the Kalinga in Luzon have remained isolated from lowland influence.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: There were several upland groups living in the Cordillera Central of Luzon in 1990. At one time it was employed by lowland Filipinos in a pejorative sense, but in recent years it came to be used with pride by native groups in the mountain region as a positive expression of their ethnic identity. The Ifugao of Ifugao province, the Bontoc, Kalinga, Tinguian, the Kankanaey and Ibaloi were all farmers who constructed the rice terraces for many centuries.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: Other mountain peoples of Luzon are the Isnag of the province of Apayao, the Gaddang of the border between Kalinga and Isabela provinces and the Ilongot of Nueva Vizcaya province and Caraballo Mountains all developed hunting and gathering, farming cultivation and headhunting. Other groups such as the Negritos formerly dominated the highlands throughout the islands for thousands of years, but have been reduced to a small population, living in widely scattered locations, primarily along the eastern ranges of the mountains.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: In the southern Philippines, upland and lowland tribal groups were concentrated on Mindanao and western Visayas, although there are several upland groups such as the Mangyan living in Mindoro. Among the most important groups found on Mindanao are collectively called the Lumad, and includes the Manobo which is a bigger ethnographic group such as the Ata-Manobo and the Matigsalug found in Davao City, Davao del Norte and Bukidnon Province; the Langilan-Manobo in Davao del Norte; the Agusan-Manobo in Agusan del Sur and southern parts of Agusan del Norte; the Pulanguiyon-Manobo of Bukidnon Province; the Ubo-Manobo in southwestern parts of Davao City, and northern parts of North Cotabato Province that is also to include the Arumanen-Manobo of Carmen (N. Cotabato); the Dulangan-Manobo in the Province of Sultan Kudarat; the Talaandig, Higaonon and Bukidnon of Bukidnon province, Bagobo, Mandaya, Mansaka, Tagakaulo in Davao region who inhabited the mountains bordering the Davao Gulf; the Kalagan people lives particularly in lowland areas and seashores of Davao del Norte, Compostella Valley, Davao Oriental and some seashores in Davao Del Sur, the Subanon of upland areas in Zamboanga; the Mamanua in the Agusan-Surigao border region; the B'laan, Teduray and Tboli in the region of the Cotabato province, and the Samal. Samal is synonymous with Luwa'an. Yakan is the indigenous tribe in the hinterlands of Basilan Province. In the lowland lives the Sama Banguingui tribe while in coastal areas there leave the nomadic Luwa'an. Sulu lowland areas are also home of the Sama Banguingui. The Sama or the Sinama and the Jama Mapun are the indigenous tribes in the province of Tawi-Tawi.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: The Philippine government succeeded in establishing a number of protected reservations for tribal groups. Highland peoples were expected to speak their native language, dress in their traditional tribal clothing, live in houses constructed of natural materials using traditional architectural designs and celebrate their traditional ceremonies of propitiation of spirits believed to be inhabiting their environment. They are also encouraged to re-establish their traditional authority structure in which, as in indigenous society were governed by chieftains known as "Rajah", "Datu" and "Loris".


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: Contact between primitive and modern ethnic groups usually resulted in weakening or destroying tribal culture without assimilating the indigenous groups into modern society. It seemed doubtful that the shift of the Philippine government policy from assimilation to cultural pluralism could reverse the process. Several Filipino tribes tend to lead to the abandonment of traditional culture because land security makes it easier for tribal members to adopt the economic process of the larger society and facilitates marriage with outsiders.


title: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

text: In the past, the Philippine government bureaus could not preserve tribes as social museum exhibits, but with the aid of various nationwide organizations, they hoped to help the people adapt to modern society without completely losing their ethnic identity.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ().


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus. One week later an Italian man repatriated to Italy from the city of Wuhan, China, was hospitalized and confirmed as the third case in Italy. Clusters of cases were later detected in Lombardy and Veneto on 21 February, with the first deaths on 22 February. By the beginning of March, the virus had spread to all regions of Italy.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 31 January, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters. On 8 March 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expanded the quarantine to all of Lombardy and 14 other northern provinces, and on the following day to all of Italy, placing more than 60 million people in lockdown. On 11 March 2020, Conte prohibited nearly all commercial activity except for supermarkets and pharmacies. On 21 March, the Italian government closed all non-essential businesses and industries, and restricted movement of people. In May, many restrictions were gradually eased, and on 3 June, freedom of movement across regions and other European countries was restored. In October, Italy was hit by the second wave of the pandemic, which brought the government to introduce further restrictions on movement and social life, which were gradually eased in mid-2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: By 18 January, Italy had tested about 48 million people. Due to the limited number of tests performed, the real number of infected people in Italy, as in other countries, is estimated to be higher than the official count. In May 2020, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) estimated 11,000 more deaths for COVID-19 in Italy than the confirmed ones. This estimation was later confirmed in October 2020 by a second Istat report. In March 2021, Istat published a new report in which it detected an excess mortality of 100,526 deaths in 2020, compared to the average of the previous five years. Moreover, 2020 became the year with the highest number of deaths since 1945, when Italy was fighting in World War II on its soil.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: During the peak of the pandemic, Italy's number of active cases was one of the highest in the world. , Italy has 2,706,453 active cases. Overall, there have been confirmed cases and deaths (a rate of deaths per million population), while there have been 7,687,989 recoveries or dismissals.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 31 December 2019, the Health Commission of Wuhan, Hubei, China, informed the WHO about a cluster of acute pneumonia cases with unknown origin in its province. On 9 January 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) reported the identification of a novel coronavirus (later identified as the SARS-CoV-2) as the cause. In late January 2020, following the developments of COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China, on 3 February, Italy set up enhanced screening measures, including thermal cameras and medical staff at airports.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 31 January 2020, the Italian Council of Ministers appointed Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection, as Special Commissioner for the COVID-19 emergency.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 22 February, the government announced a new decree imposing the quarantine of more than 50,000 people from 11 municipalities in Northern Italy. The quarantine zones are called the Red Zones and the areas in Lombardy and Veneto outside of them are called the Yellow Zones. Penalties for violations range from a €206 fine to three months of imprisonment. The Italian military and law enforcement agencies were instructed to secure and implement the lockdown.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Schools were closed in ten municipalities in Lombardy, one in Veneto and one in Emilia Romagna. All public events were cancelled and some commercial activities were halted or were allowed to resume only until 6 pm. All religious services were cancelled. Regional train services to the most affected areas were suspended, with trains skipping stops at Codogno, Maleo and Casalpusterlengo stations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: People with symptoms were advised to call the 112 emergency number, instead of going directly to hospitals, in an effort to limit the disease's spread. The Ministry of Health provided a website and a direct line (1500) from which people could obtain the latest updates and information, as well as report suspected cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Educational trips to destinations in Italy and abroad were suspended. Universities in Lombardy, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna suspended all activities from 23 February until 1 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 22 February 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte suspended all sporting events in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, which included three Serie A football matches in those regions, as well as one in Piedmont, that were to be played the following day. The following week, six Serie A matches were initially to be played behind closed doors, but all were later suspended, as were two Coppa Italia matches.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Authorities in Veneto cancelled the last two days of the Carnival of Venice on 23 February. Authorities in Piedmont cancelled the last three days of the Carnival of Ivrea.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: La Scala, Milan Cathedral and Piccolo Teatro in Milan, as well as St Mark's Basilica in Venice, were closed until further notice. A Giorgio Armani fashion show, which was scheduled on Sunday, the last day of Milan Fashion Week 2020, went ahead without any media or buyers present; it was instead streamed live online.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In addition to the emergency phone numbers 112 and 118, new dedicated numbers were added for the different regions – Lombardy 800894545, Campania 800909699, Veneto 800462340, Piedmont 800333444 and Emilia-Romagna 800033033. The "Ocean Viking", a rescue ship operated by MSF and SOS Mediteranee that was carrying almost 300 migrants, was quarantined for 14 days in Pozzallo, Sicily. Trenitalia and Italo, the major providers for Italy's high-speed trains, ordered the installation of hand-sanitiser dispensers on all trains as well as the distribution of masks, disposable gloves and disinfectants to all onboard staff members.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Supermarkets in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna were emptied by customers as residents stockpiled food and supplies. Streets, parks and train stations in multiple cities in Lombardy were left deserted.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 24 February 500 additional police officers were assigned to patrol the quarantined areas in Lodi and Veneto. Additional toll-free numbers were added for other regions — Aosta Valley 800122121, Trentino Alto Adige 800751751, Friuli Venezia Giulia 800500300, Toscana 800556060, Umbria 800636363, Marche 800936677 and Lazio 800118800.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The governor of Basilicata, Vito Bardi, instituted a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people arriving from areas in Northern Italy affected by the outbreak. The Ministry of Health announced that it had engaged 31 laboratories in Italy to carry out the analysis of swabs from suspected COVID-19 cases. Minister Roberto Speranza appointed Walter Ricciardi, a member of World Health Organization's executive committee and former president of Italian National Institute of Health, as a special adviser for relations between Italy and international health organisations. Filming of "" starring Tom Cruise in Venice was halted.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Major companies such as IBM, Enel, Luxottica, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Vodafone continued to allow remote work by employees. Generali Tower in Milan and Palazzo Madama in Rome installed thermal scanners to measure temperatures of visitors and employees. FAO Headquarters in Rome conducted temperature checks on visitors entering the building.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Multiple regions in Italy such as Liguria, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Abruzzo and Marche decided to close all schools and universities for two days to a week. Court proceedings were postponed until further notice.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The FTSE MIB Index fell by 6% and other stock market indices across Europe were also affected. Over 300,000 calls per day were logged on Lombardy's toll-free line as well as the emergency number 112. Some of the residents inside the Red Zone managed to leave the quarantined areas daily, bypassing the checkpoints by going through back roads.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 25 February, Aviano Air Base closed all schools until 28 February. General Tod D. Walters issued a travel ban covering the areas of Italy affected by the outbreak for US service members and their families. Driver's licence exams were suspended in Lombardy and Veneto. The number of checkpoints in the Red Zones was increased from 15 to 35, and army personnel were sent to help staff the checkpoints.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The Italian Basketball Federation suspended all of its championship games, including Lega Basket Serie A.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Istituto Tecnico Economico Enrico Tosi in Varese, Istituto Comprensivo di Pianoro in Bologna and Liceo Attilio Bertolucci in Parma conducted lessons for students online while waiting for the schools to reopen. The University of Palermo suspended all activities until 9 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Multiple fairs and exhibitions were rescheduled. Salone del Mobile was postponed to 16 to 21 June. Bologna Children's Book Fair was rescheduled to 4 to 7 May. Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, a cosmetic fair, was rescheduled to 11 to 15 June. Expocasa, a furniture fair in Turin, was rescheduled initially to 28 March to 5 April but later to a future date to be announced later. Roma Motodays was postponed to 17 to 19 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Italy opened a probe into skyrocketing online prices for masks and sanitising gels. Police issued warnings that criminals were using false identities and posing as health inspectors to gain access to people's homes to steal money, jewellery and other valuables.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 26 February, Director of the Italian National Institute of Health Franco Locatelli announced that swabbing would only be performed on symptomatic patients, as 95% of the swabs previously tested were negative.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The Italian Minister of University and Research, Gaetano Manfredi, announced that online lessons would be delivered to students in areas affected by the outbreak starting on 2 March. Palermo and Naples closed all schools until 29 February. The University of Basilicata installed a thermal scanner and continued all teaching activities as per normal. The University of Bari suspended all medical- and health-related internships for medical and healthcare students. Politecnico di Milano conducted thesis mentoring for more than one thousand students graduating the following week using Skype.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The Italian Winter Sports Federation decided to proceed with the Women's World Cup alpine skiing races at La Thuile, Aosta Valley on 29 February. The MIDO Milan Eyewear Show was rescheduled to 5 to 7 July.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 27 February, Taranto, Apulia closed all schools until 29 February. Multiple schools were closed in Roseto degli Abruzzi. D'Annunzio University suspended all activities until 29 February. Cartoocomics Fair in Milan was rescheduled to 2 to 4 October. The Winter Rescue Race in Piedmont was cancelled. University of Bologna planned to set up a remote teaching project in which exams and lessons would be delivered to students online, to be partially completed on 2 March. Messina closed all schools from 29 February to 3 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 28 February, during an interview with Rai News24, Professor Massimo Galli from the Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan suggested that the majority of newly recorded cases were pre-existing cases that were finally detected during the extensive tests performed on people (and their relatives) who had come in contact with confirmed patients. The rapid increase of positive cases was the result of the blanket testing approach that was deployed following the first confirmed case in Codogno.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The Ministry of Health announced new guidelines for reporting cases. It would no longer report asymptomatic cases (positive swabs taken from patients who were not showing symptoms), which had counted as 40 to 50% of all reported cases at the time. These people would undergo isolation at home and would be followed up with new tests until they were negative. Universities in Lombardy extended their closure until 7 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 1 March, the Council of Ministers approved a decree to organise the containment of the outbreak. In the decree, the Italian national territory was divided into three areas:


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 4 March, the Italian government imposed the shutdown of all schools and universities nationwide for two weeks as the country reached 100 deaths from the outbreak. The same day, the government ruled that all sporting events in Italy would be played behind closed doors until 3 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 5 March, when the newly appointed Emilia-Romagna regional minister of health, Raffale Donini, tested positive for COVID-19, Governor Stefano Bonaccini appointed Sergio Venturi as commissioner for the emergency. Venturi was the regional minister of health until February 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In the night between 7 and 8 March, the government approved a decree to lock down Lombardy and 14 other provinces in Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Marche, involving more than 16  million people. The decree "absolutely avoided any movement into and out of the areas" and, like the previous one, it provided sanctions of up to three months in prison for those who violated the lockdown. It was possible to move into and out of the areas only for emergencies or "proven working needs", which must be authorised by the prefect. The decree also established the closure of all gyms, swimming pools, spas and wellness centres. Shopping centres had to be closed on weekends, while other commercial activities could remain open if a distance of one metre between customers could be guaranteed. The decree imposed the closure of museums, cultural centres and ski resorts in the lockdown areas and the closure of cinemas, theatres, pubs, dance schools, game rooms, betting rooms and bingo halls, discos and similar places in the entire country. Civil and religious ceremonies, including funeral ceremonies, were suspended. All organised events were also suspended, as well as events in public or private places, including those of a cultural, recreational, sporting and religious nature, even if held in closed places. This measure was described as the largest lockdown in the history of Europe, as well as the most aggressive response taken in any region beyond China, and paralysed the wealthiest parts of the country as Italy attempted to constrain the rapid spread of the disease.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Riots broke out in many penitentiaries throughout Italy after restrictions on conjugal visits were imposed by the government in the 8 March decree. Nine prisoners died in Modena and three in Rieti, while 76 detainees escaped from Foggia's penitentiary. Two prison agents were assaulted and kidnapped in Pavia. On 9 March in Bologna, detainees took control of the Dozza penitentiary, forcing personnel to exit the building. On 11 March, two prisoners were found dead in Bologna's penitentiary. In total, fourteen prisoners died in the whole country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 9 March, the government announced that all sporting events in Italy would be cancelled until at least 3 April, but the ban did not include Italian clubs or national teams participating in international competitions. In the evening, Conte announced in a press conference that all measures previously applied only in the so-called "red zones" had been extended to the whole country, putting approximately 60 million people in lockdown. Conte later proceeded to officially sign the new executive decree.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 11 March, the government allocated 25 billion euros for the emergency. In the evening, Conte announced a tightening of the lockdown, with all commercial and retail businesses except those providing essential services, like grocery shops and pharmacies, closed down. He also appointed Domenico Arcuri as Delegated Commissioner for the Emergency. Arcuri will cooperate with Commissioner Angelo Borrelli with the aim of strengthening the distribution of intensive care equipment.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 16 March 2020, the Italian government introduced the "Cura Italia" emergency package, valued at €25 billion and accounting for 1.1% of the GDP. The package was the earliest financial response to the COVID-19 outbreak and aimed at supporting the Italian health care system, as well as its citizens and businesses. It included "funds to strengthen the Italian health care system and civil protection (€3.2 billion); measures to preserve jobs and support income of laid-off workers and self-employed (€10.3 billion); other measures to support businesses, including tax deferrals and postponement of utility bill payments in most affected municipalities (€6.4 billion); as well as measures to support credit supply (€5.1 billion)."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 19 March, the Army was deployed to the city of Bergamo, the worst hit Italian city by COVID-19, as the local authorities can no longer process the number of dead residents. The city's mayor Giorgio Gori said the true number of dead could be much higher than reported. Army trucks transported bodies to crematoriums in several other cities, as cemeteries in the city were full. On the following day, the Army was called in to assist the police forces in enforcing the lockdown.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 20 March, the Ministry of Health ordered tighter regulations on free movement. The new measures banned open-air sports and running, except individually and in close proximity of one's residence. Parks, playgrounds, and public green were closed down. Furthermore, movement across the country was further restricted, by banning "any movement towards a residence different from the main one", including holiday homes, during weekends and holidays.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 21 March, Conte announced further restrictions within the nationwide lockdown, by halting all non-essential production, industries and businesses in Italy, following the rise in the number of new cases and deaths in the previous days. This measure had also been strongly asked for by multiple institutions, including trade unions, mayors, and regional presidents, as well as medical professionals, but was initially opposed by the industrialists.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 24 March, in a live-streamed press conference, Conte announced a new decree approved by the Council of Ministers. The decree imposed higher fines for the violation of the restrictive measures, and regulation of the relationship between government and Parliament during the emergency. It included also the possibility of reducing or suspending public and private transport, and gave the regional governments power to impose additional restrictive regulations in their regions for a maximum of seven days before being confirmed by national decree.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 1 April, the government extended the period of lockdown until 13 April, with health minister Speranza saying that the restrictive measures had begun to yield the first positive results.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 6 April, the government announced a new economic stimulus plan, consisting of €200 billion of state-guaranteed loans to companies and additional €200 billion of guarantees to support exports.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 7 April, after more than a month of suspension, the Italian Basketball Federation officially ended the 2019–20 LBA season, without assigning the title.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 8 April, a government's decree closed all Italian ports until 31 July, stating that they do not ensure the necessary requirements for the classification and definition of "safe place", established by the Hamburg Rules on maritime search and rescue."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 10 April, Conte announced the prolongation of the lockdown until 3 May, as well as the reopening of some businesses like bookshops and forestry.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 26 April, the Prime Minister announced a starter plan for the so-called "phase 2", that would start from 4 May. Movements across regions would still be forbidden, while the ones between municipalities would be allowed only for work and health reasons, as well as for visits to relatives. The plan allowed the re-opening of manufacturing industries and construction sites, however schools, bars, restaurants and hairdressers would stay closed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 16 May, Conte announced the government plan for the easing of restrictions. Starting from 18 May most businesses could reopen, and free movement was granted to all citizens within their region; movement across regions was still banned for non-essential motives. Furthermore, on 25 May swimming pools and gyms could also reopen, and on 15 June theatres and cinemas.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 3 June, free movement within the whole national territory was restored, "de facto" ending the lockdown started in March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Penalties for breaching isolation were increased with fines from €500 to €5,000 and imprisonment of up to 18 months.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Starting from July 2020, many countries in Europe, including Italy, witnessed a new rise in detected COVID-19 cases. On 7 October, the Parliament postponed the end of the state of emergency to 31 January 2021, and Prime Minister Conte imposed the use of protection mask outdoors.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 13 October 2020, the Italian government reintroduced stricter rules to limit the spread of COVID-19. Demonstrations and gatherings of people were strictly forbidden. Regions and municipalities were given the power to only tighten, but not release, containment measures.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Italian regions and the central government began reinforcing hospitals to accommodate more sick and infected with COVID-19.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: All hospital facilities were upgraded and expanded with a larger capacity for beds and intensive units than in March 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The Italian government also purchased about 19 million doses of flu vaccine, to be distributed to the population.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Tracking applications, monitoring systems with the help of surveillance drones and predictive systems are used to understand the progress of the epidemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: If containment fails, the possible cases of infections will rise to about one million people and about 80,000 will die before the end of the pandemic, but the release of the COVID-19 vaccine is imminent and can change this dramatic projection.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 25 October, Conte introduced new restrictions, imposing the closing of gyms, swimming pools, theatres and cinemas, as well as the closing of bars and restaurants by 6 pm.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Predictive systems have proven reliable and confirmed the increase in cases and deaths since October 2020. The start of the vaccination campaign on 27 December 2020 did not limit the spread of the virus in the population that is still vulnerable, but safeguarded doctors and health professionals and partly the elderly and immuno-depressed patients.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: However, the appearance of numerous variants of the more lethal virus such as the English one, and those still to be assessed as dangerous such as the South African and Brazilian or Amazonian ones together with a slowdown in the vaccination campaign due to a poor supply of vaccines will lead to a worsening of the prospects for containing the virus. and an increase of another 40,000 deaths by spring 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In June 2021, the COVID-19 Delta variant became predominant. The Delta variant is more contagious and is equally risky for those who have not had the COVID-19 vaccine or who have only taken the first dose. However, currently available data do not show an increase in the lethality rate.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On July 16, 2021, The cases in Italy since the beginning of the epidemic are 4,281,214, the deaths 127,851.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The current positives are 42,714, up 1,814 in the last 24 hours. People in home isolation are 41,465 (+1,807).


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On summer 2021, under monitoring in Italy, there is another variant beyond the Delta, the Epsilon variant that was first identified in California, in the United States, in early 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 15 March, President of Campania Vincenzo De Luca imposed a strict quarantine on Ariano Irpino, in the province of Avellino, and four other municipalities in the province of Salerno, Atena Lucana, Caggiano, Polla, and Sala Consilina.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 16 March, President of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini imposed a strengthened quarantine on the municipality of Medicina, near Bologna, since it had developed an intense outbreak. People were not allowed to enter or exit the town for any reason.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In early April, Lombardy and Tuscany made it compulsory for all residents to wear a face mask when leaving their home.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in August, Italy's health minister, Roberto Speranza announced the closure of nightclubs in some parts of the country and made masks mandatory between 6 pm and 6 am, in crowded areas and at social gatherings. The restrictions came into effect on 17 August 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 15 October 2020, the president of Campania De Luca, closed all schools and universities until 30 October 2020. On 23 October, De Luca announced a regional lockdown, imposing restrictions to all not essential movements as well as a curfew. In the night, riots and clashes happened in the streets of Naples to protest against the lockdown.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The strategy of mass-testing asymptomatic carriers was proven to be successful in stopping the spread of the virus in one Italian town. This strategy in Italy was supported by the region of Veneto.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The vaccination campaign began on 27 December 2020, when Italy received 9,750 doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. These doses were entirely used in the following days to vaccinate part of the medical and health personnel of hospitals. As a member of the EU, Italy would receive vaccine doses together with the other EU countries in a coordinated task managed by the European Commission.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The first Italian region to start with vaccinations was Lazio, in the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome. On 6 January 2021, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the Moderna vaccine.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 1 May 2021, Italy reached 20 million vaccinated with a single dose and 6 million with double dose.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 22 May 2021, Italy reached 30 million vaccinated with a single dose and 9.9 million with double dose.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: As of 3 September 2021, Italy has administered a total of 78,798,299 COVID vaccine doses. Given that every person requires 2 doses of the COVID vaccine for full efficiency, the total number that has been administered is enough to cover approximately 65.1% of the country's population.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The New York Times reported that Bolzano had the highest rate of covid infection due to people there relying on herbal remedies instead of vaccination.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In June 2021, during the vaccination campaign, the government lifted some lockdown measures, such as mandatory masks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: To contain the spread of new variants, in August 2021 the government extended the requirement of the EU Digital COVID Certificate, also known as "Green Pass", to the participation in sports events and music festivals, but also to the access to indoor places like bars, restaurants and gyms, as well as to long-distance public transportation.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Due to increased infections and the desire to prevent further lockdowns, the "green pass" was made mandatory for all employees in Italy in September 2021. Failure to produce a health vaccine certificate to their employer will result in suspended pay for up to five days. Employees and employers that violate this requirement will face a fine between €400 and €1500. The unemployed and those living on pension are exempted from showing their health vaccine certificate.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 5 January 2022, Italy mandated vaccines for people over the age of 50. The decision was made to ease pressure on its health service and reduce fatalities. The option to be tested instead of vaccinated has been removed. Potential sanctions for non-compliance have yet to be announced.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 15 November 2022, the Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci appeared on a broadcast of "Porta a Porta" where he discussed the reduction of quarantine guidelines and said Italy is in an "endemic phase of COVID, we must take the same precautions we had before for the flu".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 22 February 2020, the government established a lockdown for eleven municipalities in Lombardy and Veneto.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 7 March, the government prepared to extend until 3 April the restricted zone to all of Lombardy, plus fourteen other provinces in Veneto (3), Emilia-Romagna (5), Marche (1) and Piedmont (5). The lockdown affects over 16 million people, roughly a quarter of Italy's total population, and prevents people from entering or leaving the zone, except "for proven occupational needs or situations of need or for health reasons", under threat of fines. The enclave nation of San Marino, which is nestled between two of the provinces, has been effectively locked down as well.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 9 March, Prime Minister Conte announced that the lockdown would be extended to the entire country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 9 March, Alessia Bonari, a nurse from Grosseto who worked at a hospital in Milan, posted on Instagram stating that she was physically strained from being overworked and was scared to work after treating over 10,000 patients who have tested positive. Bonari and her co-workers had been extremely exhausted due to the pressures of work, and according to her, health caretakers had been working in uncomfortable conditions. The post, which reached global notoriety, contained a photo of her bruised face from wearing unfit masks and hazmat goggles, and stated that "the protective devices are bad." She concluded her post persuading others "to be selfless, to stay at home and thus protect those who are most fragile."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 17 March, undersecretary at the Ministry of Health Sandra Zampa announced the purchase of many new ventilators as well as the importing of one and a half million masks from South Africa.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: To deal with the numbers of COVID-19 patients, intensive care units were expanded, and new hospitals were created, especially in Lombardy. In Emilia-Romagna, professor Marco Ranieri developed a method to double the efficiency of ventilators in ICUs. The lack of a single protocol for hospitals was considered to be a problem.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Due to hospitals overcrowding with coronavirus patients, thousands of cancer patients experienced difficulties in getting access to treatment and transplants, with their lives put at even higher risk. Dozens of cancer hospital sections were indeed either dedicated to host coronavirus wards, or closed after personnel got infected. According to a study, cancer patients represented 17% of coronavirus fatalities in Italy.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In March 2020, oncologist Luigi Cavanna of the hospital of Piacenza was one of the first physicians in Italy to focus on house calls, realising that too many critically ill COVID-19 patients were arriving at his hospitals and that some of them could have been treated earlier at home before a possible escalation of the symptoms.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: A letter published on the "NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery" claimed that one of the reasons for the high death count in the area of Bergamo was hospital contamination. Progressively, different hospitals became dedicated to COVID-19 patients only, and more rigid separations were set up between hospital sections and triage structures. In some regions, hotels were used to host healthcare workers or patients, and in Liguria a ship was adapted to host people in quarantine. On 1 April, the first Italian drive-through testing facilities opened in Alessandria and in north-western Tuscany.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: At least ten different clinical trials were ongoing in Italian hospitals at the beginning of April. The supercomputer of ENEA in Portici was used to run advanced simulations related to other possible drugs. Some of the treatments employed for COVID-19 patients involved the administration of antiviral drugs. Remdesivir was tested with promising initial results in Naples. Despite doubts from the scientific community, Avigan (favipiravir) was also included in testing protocols by Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) even though it was not authorised in Europe. Similarly to France, hydroxychloroquine (the less toxic version of the malaria drug chloroquine) was also tested: in Lazio, its use was reported by the second week of April on a significant fraction of the roughly a thousand COVID-19 patients confined at home. Later prohibited by AIFA, the use of hydroxychloroquine was approved again in December by the Council of State upon request of some general practitioners.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Plasma treatment already tried in China (transfer of antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients to sick people) was tested at the hospital of Pavia (and later in Mantua) under the supervision of professor Cesare Perotti; the first two donors involved in the research programme were a married couple, both doctors and among the first COVID-19 patients reported in the province. The final results published in May showed a reduction in mortality. In the beginning of April, based on the results of autopsies showing the presence of micro-thrombosis in the lungs of COVID-19 patients, doctors in Tuscany and other areas of northern Italy started to use heparin to reduce the risk of blood clotting; the news was originally circulating on social media from internal chats of healthcare workers and considered a hoax by virologist Roberto Burioni, but protocols including low-molecular-weight heparin were formally submitted as a treatment proposal to AIFA. A programme involving 14 research centres was approved on 13 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The workforce of the healthcare system underwent massive reorganisation. Pediatricians were assigned to adult patients and as a result, their insurance coverage had to be adapted. Retired professionals were asked to go back to work to fill the vacancies, despite the high risk for their age group. At the peak of the pandemics volunteers from the rest of the country were sent to hospitals in critical areas of northern and central Italy.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Healthcare workers were also affected by coronavirus infections, with a higher percentage of the infected healthcare workers being women because of their predominance among nurses. This resulted in death in a considerable number of cases, especially amongst general practitioners. By the end of March, more than 60 doctors in Italy had died with COVID-19, and the figure increased to 80 by 4 April and later 145 by 22 April. Healthcare personnel were also subject to high levels of stress, and the risk of professional burn-out was considered high, particularly across nurses and in more affected areas. Two suicides, one of a nurse in Jesolo and one of a nurse in Monza, were assumed to be related to psychological pressure.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The emergency was an occasion to test or develop new protocols based on digital technologies. With the aim of reducing consumption of protective equipment, robots were introduced in hospitals in Varese, and remote diagnostics were introduced to monitor home care patients in Lodi. To facilitate home calls from patients, "Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia" in Genoa (IIT) and "Istituto di robotica e macchine intelligenti" (I-RIM) designed a robot for video calls that could be assembled by hospital personnel and that was tested at the end of April in Pisa, Massa-Carrara and Induno Olona.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: The pandemic provoked large economic damage to the Italian economy. The sectors of tourism, accommodation and food services were among the hardest hit by foreign countries' limitations to travel to Italy, and by the nationwide lockdown imposed by the government on 8 March. By April, finance minister Roberto Gualtieri predicted a 6% GDP decline for 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 12 March, the Italian stock market was among the worst hit during Black Thursday, when the FTSE MIB index lost 17% of its value in one day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Multiple factories, like Fiat Chrysler, halted production in some of their plants. On 21 March, the government issued the shutdown of all non-essential businesses, industries, and economic activities.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: "The Economist" predicts a 7% GDP decline for Italy in 2020. Economist Alberto Bisin forecast that Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio would rise from 130% to 180% by the end of the year, due to borrowing and losses. Multiple economists believe that Italy will struggle to pay back its debt.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Although the virus has hit northern Italy hardest, economically deprived areas of southern Italy are suffering the most from the lockdown. Many residents of those areas work in the grey economy and are therefore not eligible for unemployment benefits. In some places the Italian mafia was reported to be delivering groceries to needy residents. Prosecutors warned that the mafia was not acting out of altruism and was instead seeking control over residents.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Some Italian small and medium-sized enterprises partially or totally converted their production to supply personal protective equipment at a local scale. Many of these items could not be approved for hospital use, but they were considered useful to supply demand for the general population.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In Veneto, Grafica Veneta – the printing company of the "Harry Potter" books in Italian – started to mass-produce protective masks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In Piedmont, Ci.Ti.Elle, a company from Castiglione Torinese specialising in textiles for hotels, put its twelve employers to assembling surgical masks for the regional "Protezione Civile", and the hospitals of San Maurizio Canavese, Alessandria and Chivasso, with the support the Filmar company from Caselle for the elastics.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In Lombardy Cifra, a manufacturer from Verano Brianza specialising in sportswear, also converted its production line.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: In the textile district of the province of Prato, the Machattie company started production of polypropylene masks in March, and the Dreoni company in Vaiano switched its production from car upholstery to protective masks with certified standard, with the help of the local population (its owner later died of COVID-19).


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Companies producing alcoholic beverages also underwent reconversion to produce alcohol-based hand sanitiser. In Piedmont this occurred in Canelli at the Ramazzotti factory (part of the Pernod Ricard group) and in Chieri at the Martini plant.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Isinnova, a local engineering startup from Brescia, provided emergency solutions to local hospitals to compensate the shortages of spare parts for the machines. Firstly, they produced venturi valves for respirators using 3D printers, and later (in collaboration with Decathlon) they adapted a snorkelling mask into a non-invasive ventilator. Using 3D-printer technology as well, Elmec Informatica started to produce for the hospital of Busto Arsizio, sterilisable protective masks in thermoplastic polyurethanes that could adapt to Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) antiviral filters. The Italian National Mint and Printing House used the plastic film applied to identity cards to produce face shields.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 25 March, Italy, together with Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain, sent a joint letter to the Council of the EU, calling for the issuing of a new common debt instrument, nicknamed in the media as "eurobond" or "corona bond", to help funding the measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic and the expected economic downturn to follow. In subsequent conference calls between the leaders of the EU member states, the proposal saw the opposition of the Netherlands and Germany.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: On 9 April, after two meetings of the Eurogroup, the ministers of Finances of the Eurozone countries agreed to €500 billion aid, including the possibility of using the ESM, but without common debt instruments.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: Subsequent to the imposing of the national lockdown, there were protests in some Italian prisons, with fourteen deaths among Modena, Bologna and Foggia's penitentiary.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

text: With all of Italy ordered to remain indoors, Italians took to their balconies to sing together, play music, and applaud the country's health care providers. Some of the demonstrations were spontaneous, others were organised by social media and radio. On 13 March at 6 pm, Italians throughout the country joined to sing the national anthem. At noon on 14 March, they stood on their balconies clapping to salute the nation's health care workers. A video of opera singer Maurizio Marchini performing the aria "Nessun dorma" from his balcony in Florence went viral.