Italy: The Covid Crisis and the Migrant Crisis Come Together at Treviso

Treviso


Between the continuing arrivals of migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and who knows where else, Italy is also reeling from the Covid crisis. The two issues are definitely inter-related because many of these new arrivals are testing positive, and they are itching to get out of the migrant reception centers, in some places simply running away.

The major point of concern in Italy this week is in the northeastern town of Treviso in the Veneto region, where over two hundred migrants are housed in a former military caserne. Over half of them have tested positive. They are being quarantined, there has been a revolt, and now policemen who had to respond are testing positive.


Serena Caserne, Treviso


The below article from Il Giornale is translated by Fousesquawk.


https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/interviene-arrestare-migrante-nellex-caserma-serena-1882502.html


The migrants infect the police officers. And now Treviso is in chaos

After the intervention of some police officers to put down the revolt in the former caserne, one of them has tested positive and three are in isolation.
-Francesca Galici, Sunday August 9, 2020

The former Serena Caserne of Treviso is now the largest active breakout of Covid in Italy, and the chain of contagion linked to this migrant center doesn't seem to stop.

Other than the guests and the operators of the structure, in these hours, the positive test of a policeman has emerged. The officer came into contact with the migrants in the center in order to put down a revolt together with two colleagues, who now are in isolation.

Last Saturday, a request arrived at the Police headquarters of Treviso from the former Serena Caserne for an intervention in the interior of the migrant center, where a revolt had broken out. The residents were in rebellion against the possible decision on the part of the mayor to treat the caserne as if it were a "red zone". A measure  which would prevent any exchange with the outside in order to limit the spread of Covid. The idea of continuing to be under the rules of quarantine caused an outburst among some migrants, who assaulted the infirmary of the structure. At that point, the officers from police headquarters of Treviso intervened, who placed a 26-year-old from Gambia under arrest. The man, after having destroyed  some of the equipment in the interior of the infirmary, first assaulted one of the doctors, and then threatened the officers with an iron bar.

A few days after that episode, one of the three police officers showed typical symptoms of covid-19 and the swab gave positive results. At that point, there was also an immediate swab request  for his colleagues. For them, the first test gave a negative result, but that which followed  negated the result. They are now awaiting the result of the third swab, but in the meantime they are in quarantine. The former Serena Caserne thus returns to the center of the news after the exponential increase of cases in a week that has exceeded 250. 

The management of the emergency in the center has been placed under a microscope due to the possible lack of respect of the rules prescribed against the spread of the epidemic. It seems that in the interior of the former Serena Caserne the positive residents were not  separated from the those negative, and this is believed to led to the explosion of cases, making the former caserne the largest breakout in the country. As stated by Il Gazzettino di Treviso, the prosecutor has now opened a case in order to understand if the infection of the police officer, and that  of his colleagues (to be confirmed), could be attributed directly to the intervention at the reception center.