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MILAN: Italy ordered on Sunday (October 25) that bars and restaurants close at 6:00 p.m. and shut down public gyms, cinemas and swimming pools to try to stop a rapid resurgence of the coronavirus that has raised daily rates of infection to new records.
The measures, which came into effect on Monday and were agreed between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government in Rome and regional authorities, came after two nights of protests in Naples and Rome against curfews introduced in various regions last week. .
Aware of the enormous cost of shutting down the economy, the Roman government has said it does not want to repeat the general blockade ordered in the first phase of the crisis. But it has been forced to steadily increase restrictions as the pandemic progressed after slowing down in the summer.
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The decree encourages people not to go out and limit contacts at home with anyone other than their immediate family, but it does not impose a nationwide curfew or mandatory closure and allows stores and most businesses remain open.
However, service in bars and restaurants will be subject to a series of controls to limit contagion, and cinemas, theaters, game rooms and nightclubs will be closed.
The decree also mandates that up to three-quarters of secondary school instruction be conducted online to limit the number of students in school buildings.
Italy, once the country hardest hit by the pandemic in the industrialized world, has been overtaken by others in Europe, including Spain, France and Britain, but case rates have recovered rapidly and health services have rebounded. seen under increasing pressure.
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On Saturday, authorities reported a new daily record of 19,644 infections, as well as 151 deaths from the respiratory disease.
The protests in Naples and Rome, though limited in scale, underscored the tense political climate facing Conte’s coalition government between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party.
Conte was generally praised for his handling of the initial phase of the crisis, but has come under increasing criticism for failing to strengthen preparations, including testing and contact tracing during the summer.
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