ROME, April 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was
reportedly ready Friday to extend most measures of Italy’s month-long lockdown
until early May in order to avoid a second coronavirus wave.
Italy’s main newspapers said Conte will published a decree either Friday or
Saturday prohibiting people from taking walks or lounging in parks until May
3.
The reported decision followed days of consultations with government
scientists and regional leaders.
Italy’s death toll from the novel coronavirus has officially reached 18,279
since the end of February, the highest in the world.
But daily rises in new infections have slowed dramatically and Italy is
gradually approaching a point when the number of people officially suffering
from COVID-19 might begin to drop.
The Corriere della Serra newspaper said Conte will bow to growing pressure
and allow a tiny number of businesses to reopen when the existing restrictions
expire on April 13.
These reportedly include book and stationery stores as well as lumber
companies and factories that make agricultural machinery.
The government and scientists reportedly view these as businesses with the
least amount of human interaction.
It will represent “a small, cautious, symbolic opening,” the Corriere della
Serra wrote.
“We do not have the conditions to restart thing now,” Conte reportedly told
union and business leaders during a private videoconference on Thursday.
Only grocery stores and pharmacies have been allowed to operate since a
general lockdown began at the peak of the Mediterranean country’s outbreak on
March 12.
A study released by the Confcooperative small business lobby said the
closures have left more half of Italy’s 1.3 million construction workers and
over a third of the 11.4 million services sector employees furloughed.
Government scientists have also been pushing for the ban on public
gatherings to be extended as long as possible as a safety precaution.
But Conte was now reportedly ready to let Italians freely leave their houses
for the first time time in nearly two months on May 4.
“If scientists confirm it, we might begin to relax some measures already by
the end of this month,” he told the BBC on Thursday.