Local public transport in the phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. The experience of the Tuscany Region

Local public transport in the phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. The experience of the Tuscany Region

The experience of the Tuscany Region On 30 January 2021, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), based on the opinion of the Emergency Committee, announced a “global health emergency” by declaring that the spread of the virus caused by COVID-19 constitutes a public health emergency of international significance. With the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 31 January 2020, the Italian Government declares a state of emergency as a consequence of the health risk associated with the onset of pathologies deriving from transmissible viral agents. On 11 March 2020, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID19 represents a global pandemic, acknowledging that the virus would have irreparably affected every part of the globe (WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID -19, 11 March 2020, https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-mediabriefing-on-covid-19—11 -March-2020). The pandemic is considered an epidemic extended to cover a large area well beyond national borders and affecting a large part of the world’s population. The main criterion taken as a reference by the WHO is that of the degree of diffusion of a given virus on a global scale and not the level of mortality. The parameter required by the WHO guidelines on influenza pandemics is the spread of the influenza virus in more than one of the six regions into which WHO Member States are grouped (Africa region, Americas region, South-East Asia region , European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region). (…)