ROME: Italy, one of the countries worst hit by Covid-19, will likely be placed under new restrictions over Christmas and New Yr eve, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced late Friday (Dec 18).
Under the new measures, shops, bars, and restaurants will likely be closed and travel between regions will be banned, and an idea, just one daily outside trip per family will be permitted.
Religious celebrations will be allowed till 10 pm.
The move comes as Lombardy, Veneto, and Lazio registered a rate of transmission of over 1, meaning the virus is again spreading in three key areas after weeks of lower in the contagion curve. The national rate is 0.86, which means on average the curve is flattening.
“Our consultant’s fear that the infection curve will increase during the Christmas period,” Conte stated.
The prime minister conceded that the authorities had neither the means nor the need to watch compliance with containment measures, however, he asked Italians to respect a new restriction of individuals hosting two adult visitors at home.
“The virus continues to flow everywhere. We can bend it, however, we can’t defeat it,’’ Conte stated. “This is why even among our experts there’s a strong concern that the contagion curve might surge in the course of the Christmas interval.”
Food retailers, hairdressing salons, pharmacies, tobacconists, and laundries as well as bookstores will, however, stay open.
Conte specified that the confinement would be relaxed on Dec 28, 29, 30 in addition to on Jan 4.
Nowadays, retailers can stay open till 9 pm and people will likely be allowed to move about freely.
The new restrictions will mean no Christmas lunches in restaurants, as had been foreseen in an earlier decree, although take-out and deliveries are allowed.
To melt the blow to a sector already devastated, the decree includes €645 million in aid.
In anticipation of the ban on motion between areas, which already had been announced, many people moved up holiday travel to this weekend.
Italy has 60 million inhabitants and one of the oldest populations in Europe.
Italy reported 674 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday against 683 the day earlier, the health ministry stated, whereas the daily tally of recent infections decreased to 17,992 from 18,236.
The first Western nation hit by the virus, Italy has seen 67,894 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth-highest in the world.
It has also registered 1.92 million cases so far.
