Italy To Declare Regional Lockdowns From Monday As Covid ‘Third Wave’ Takes Hold

Italy To Declare Regional Lockdowns From Monday As Covid ‘Third Wave’ Takes Hold.

The Italian government has announced much tougher Covid restrictions for most of the country, as it faces the third wave of infections. Italy is facing “a new wave” of coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned as his government prepared to tighten restrictions across most of the country.

“More than a year after the start of the health emergency, we are unfortunately facing a new wave of infections,” Draghi said on Friday, during a visit to a new vaccination centre at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

“The memory of what happened last spring is vivid, and we will do everything to prevent it from happening again,” he said. Schools, restaurants, shops and museums are expected to close from Monday in the majority of regions after Italy recorded almost 26,000 new Covid-19 cases and another 373 deaths on Thursday.

Such figures, which show an almost 15 per cent increase in infections over the past week, require the “utmost caution” to limit deaths and pressure on health services. Most of the country will now be effectively be placed under some level of lockdown, either ‘red’ or ‘orange’, starting from Monday, March 15.

Italy was the first Western country to enforce a national lockdown last year, as the virus took hold and the nation became an epicentre of the pandemic. The recent rise in cases in Italy comes amid global attempts to vaccinate populations against the virus.

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