Yahoo News Italy to extend coronavirus lockdown until 'at least Easter' as Covid-19 death toll jumps by 812 in a day
Italy will extend its nationwide lockdown measures until "at least Easter" as the death toll rose by more than 800 in a day.
The country's Health Ministry did not give a date for the new end of the lockdown, but said it would be in a law the government would propose. The measures had been due to end on Friday.
Italians have been under lockdown for three weeks, with most shops, bars and restaurants shut and people forbidden from leaving their homes for non-essential needs.
Italy is the world's hardest-hit country in terms of number of deaths and its fatalities account for more than a third of all Covid-19 deaths worldwide.
The country has seen its total death tally rise to 11,591 since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on February 21.
Speaking after reviewing the lockdown on Monday, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said: "The evaluation was to extend all containment measures at least until Easter."
Italy's death toll rose by 812 in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said, reversing two days of declines, although the number of new cases rose by 4,050, the lowest increase since March 17, reaching a total of 101,739.
However, the decline in the rise of new infections may be partly explained by a reduction in the number of tests, which were the fewest for six days.
The governor of the southern region of Puglia said on Saturday the restrictions should remain in place until May.
Underscoring the dangers of the disease, the national doctors' association announced the deaths of 11 more doctors on Monday, bringing the total to 61.
Not all of them had been tested for coronavirus before they died, it said, but it linked their deaths to the pandemic.
Lombardy, which contains Italy's financial capital Milan, accounts for almost 60 per cent of the total deaths in Italy and some 40 per cent of cases.
Lombardy President Attilio Fontana said the unprecedented curbs on movement, gatherings and business activity were preventing an exponential rise in the number of cases, and needed to be kept in place.
"We're on the right track, we're maintaining a (chart) line that's not uphill, but it's not downhill either," he said.
The head of the national health institute, Silvio Brusaferro, who is advising the government on how to handle the crisis, also said that for restrictions to be eased "the number of new cases has to fall significantly."
"For sure the re-opening will happen gradually ... we are even considering the British idea of 'stop and go', which envisages opening things for a certain amount of time and then closing them again," he told the daily La Repubblica.
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