Authorities have fined Albanian doctors and nurses who came to Italy to help fight the Chinese coronavirus outbreak for throwing a party in their hotel room following the end of their mission.
The ten medical professionals arrived in the city of Brescia around a month ago to help local hospitals deal with the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus. They came after the Albanian government offered assistance to Italy, with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama sending a total of 30 doctors to the country at the end of March.
The doctors and nurses decided to have a small party with music and alcohol to celebrate the end of their stay, but the owner of the Regal Hotel reported them to the police, La Repubblica reports.
The hotel’s owner Luca Andriani claimed that the group were very loud and said that some had shouted from balconies, tried to access the hotel swimming pool, and had vomited in parts of the hotel. He even claimed that the hotel informed the hospital of their actions.
“The night porter called me around midnight and told me that the party had been going on for hours. There were alcohol and loud music which provoked protests from the guests of the other rooms, occupied during this period exclusively by health personnel and law and order officers, in particular carabinieri,” he said.
“Nobody wore a mask, and many were on the balcony singing and screaming, disturbing the peace, which is all the more serious considering that the hotel is right across from the hospital,” he added.
Andriani also claimed the behaviour had gone on several nights before and said while he understood their work was stressful, “We are still talking about 30-year-olds, not kids.”
According to newspaper Il Giornale, the doctors received fines of €500 ($548/£436) each and two of the doctors were also fined for other infractions.
Giampaolo Natali, a local councillor for the national-conservative Brothers of Italy, criticised the move, saying: “I will not go into the merits of the police intervention, but these people arrived in Italy on the mandate of their premier to help us in one of the darkest moments with the hospitals flooded by the coronavirus.”
Italy has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the Chinese virus and introduced strict lockdown measures to stop the spread of the disease. Recently the country has seen a decline in new cases, seeing more recoveries than new infections for the first time last week.
As the situation improves, many have called on the government to ease lockdown measures, including populist leader Matteo Salvini, who addressed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte saying: “After 47 days of imprisonment, we can say on behalf of millions of Italians, ‘basta’ [enough]. Let us out, let us earn, let us work, let us make a life again.”