Crisanti adds his voice to Ricciardi in calling for covid-19 lockdown in Italy.

“We should have had the lockdown in December, preventing all this, and now we are in trouble," Andrea Crisanti, a leading virologist and coronavirus expert, told Italian newspaper La Stampa.

"How do we get out of this? With a hard lockdown immediately to prevent the English variant from becoming prevalent and to prevent it from having devastating effects like in England, Portugal and Israel.”

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Calling for "everything to be closed" and the establishment of a "national programme to monitor virus variants," the Padua University virologist said: "Where the Brazilian and South African variants are found, Codogno style lockdowns are needed, not the zone rosse which are too soft.”

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"The current risk is the spread of the English variant, which if it does not stop immediately will greatly increase the circulation of the virus and consequently the further risk of other variants, including some that may be resistant to vaccines," Crisanti told La Stampa.

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“The policies adopted so far have always been chasing the virus, while the time has come to anticipate it," said Crisanti, adding: "Germany continues with lockdown, also France, England too, it is only us who think about skiing and eating out. We all want a normal life, but it won't happen if the pandemic is not controlled."

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Crisanti's call for lockdown echoes that of Walter Ricciardi, a senior coronavirus advisor to the Italian health ministry, who last night called for an immediate, total lockdown.