ROME: Police are using drones and helicopters to make sure that Italians do not defy the lockdown to travel to beaches and summer houses during the Easter long weekend.
As nearly 20,000 deaths have been reported so far in the country since the end of February, authorities do not want to take any risks and have urged people to stay at home.
"We normally use those devices to chase mafia men on the run and to control the territory in high-risk operations in a discreet but effective way. But this time drones have proved to be really effective in finding those who are breaking the rules," Inspector Pasquale Ricci from the Italian State Police told Arab News on Easter Sunday.
Ricci was speaking while setting up a drone to patrol one of the consular roads linking the center of Rome to the sandy beaches of Ostia, where people would normally be heading on a holiday weekend with good weather.
"The army gave us those devices. They told us that they were using them last time in Afghanistan," he said. The hovering drone, about the size of a loaf of bread, emits a mechanical buzz reminiscent of a wasp and shouts down instructions in a tinny voice.
"Attention! You are in a prohibited area. Go home immediately," commands the device once somebody is detected on a beach or walking down a street without a reason.
"They are puzzled at the beginning, then they realize that they have been spotted and so they go home," the policeman explained.
A video of a helicopter locating a man sunbathing on a beach in Palermo has gone viral on social media. The lowering of the chopper on the beach causes a sand storm around the man, and he takes his towel and leaves.
A drone recently revealed a rave party with 20 people congregating on the rooftop of a tall building in Turin. They had decided not to have a barbecue so as not to attract attention, but the unmanned aircraft found them anyway.
"With drones we found many people who broke the lockdown and opened their summer beach or lake houses; they will be prosecuted and will pay a €400 ($440) fine each," said Capt. Vincenzo De Filippis from the Carabinieri, the Italian military police.
Last Friday Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended the lockdown till May 4, but also agreed to allow a small number of businesses that had been shuttered since March 12 to reopen from Tuesday on a trial basis.
The list of businesses includes bookstores and baby clothes shops, on the grounds that they rarely draw crowds and can more easily impose social distancing measures.
Laundromats and dry cleaners will also be allowed to reopen for the first time in more than a month. Only grocery stores, supermarkets and pharmacies have been able to operate so far.
A study released by the Confcooperative small business lobby said that the closures have left more than half of Italy's 1.3 million construction workers and more than a third of its 11.4 million service-sector employees furloughed. Another report by the Confindustria big business lobby estimated that every week of Italy's shutdown was chopping another 0.75 percent off its annual GDP.
FASTFACT
A drone recently revealed a rave party with 20 people congregating on the rooftop of a tall building in Turin.
But Italian government scientists are pushing for the ban on public gatherings to be extended as long as possible as a safety precaution.
This is why a policy of zero tolerance has been decided for the Easter holiday weekend, when people would normally go out to meet family and friends.
"I cannot stand it anymore with staying home, but we have nothing else to do," said Giovanni while walking his dog near St. Peter's Basilica. Dog walking is one of the few activities that Italians are allowed to leave their home for.
"At least this way I am able to take some fresh air. If I had a glass of wine I could even be pretending it is a holiday. But today it is just another day like all the others."
While Giovanni is talking, a police patrol stops him and checks his papers. "This time I am OK. Hopefully my dog will need another walk again soon so I can have some more sun and air," he said.
Drones are also used to check the temperature of people remotely after they have been spotted outdoors. A heat sensor takes the person's temperature and sends the information to a drone operator, who refers to a thermal map on his hand-held screen.
"Once a person's temperature is read by the drone, you must still stop that person and measure their temperature with a normal thermometer, but drones are useful for controlling the territory," Captain De Filippis explained. Police have been given new powers that allow them to check people's temperature without their knowledge or permission, he said.
"Everything is perfectly legal. At this moment of emergency, the Italian civil aviation authority has authorized us to control people using critical and non-critical operations. The critical operations involve city overflights."
Some Italians have had enough of the buzzing machines and their heat maps. "The use of drones might seem positive but in my opinion it's a real privacy violation. I don't like that at all," said Carlotta Deangeli, a local student living in Rome.
But pensioner Tonino Petrella is convinced that the drones deliver a public service.
"I think it's good that they are using drones," he said. "At least we know who is infected and who is not."
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