People who refuse to be treated for COVID after testing positive may be sectioned, Health Minister Roberto Speranza has said.
"Today if a person is positive and does not go into isolation he faces a criminal sanction of 3-18 months in jail, and there is a fine of up to 5,000 euros," he told La Repubblica Sunday saying that currently the person could not be forced to go to hospital however.
"I am weighing with my legislative office the hypothesis of sectioning in the cases where a person must get treatment but refuses to do so".
Speranza was speaking after The R coronavirus infection rate rose ag ain, from 0.43 to 1.63, in Veneto, raising the risk from low to elevated, according to Governor Luca Zaia on Friday.
The resurgence after a long flattening is due to an outbreak in Vicenza, Zaia said.
In the city near Venice, he said, a businessman who returned from a trip to Bosnia tested positive after refusing to go to hospital after the first symptoms.
Zaia said he would step up prevention measures, introducing the enforced hospitalisation of those who refuse admittance.
Speranza has also vowed that such cases will not recur.
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