Government weighs tougher virus lockdown, boosts aid for economy

ROME (AP):

ITALY WEIGHED imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief Wednesday to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving health crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St Peter’s Square.

In Iran, one of the world’s hardest-hit countries, the senior vice-president and two other Cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with COVID19, the illness caused by the virus.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said he would consider requests from Lombardy, Italy’s hardesthit region, to toughen the already-extraordinary anti-virus lockdown that was extended nationwide Tuesday. Lombardy wants to shut down non-essential businesses and reduce public transportation.

These additional measures would be on top of travel and social restrictions that imposed an eerie hush on cities and towns across the country from Tuesday. Police enforced rules that customers stay one metre (three feet) apart and ensured that businesses closed by 6 p.m.

Milan shopkeeper Claudia Sabbatini said she favoured stricter measures. Rather than run the risk of customers possibly infecting each other in her children’s clothing store, she decided to close it.

“I cannot have people standing at a distance. Children must try on the clothes. We have to know if they will fit,” she said.

Conte said fighting Italy’s more than 10,000 infections – the biggest outbreak outside of China – must not come at the expense of civil liberties. His caution suggested that Italy is unlikely to adopt the draconian quarantine measures that helped China push down new infections from thousands per day to a trickle now and allowed its manufacturers to restart production lines.

China’s new worry is that the coronavirus could re-enter from abroad. Beijing’s city government announced that all overseas visitors will be quarantined for 14 days. Of 24 new cases that China reported Wednesday, five arrived from Italy and one from the United States. China has had over 81,000 virus infections and over 3,000 deaths.

For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for a few, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. More than 121,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 4,300 have died.

AP People line up at a grocery store in the town of Codogno, in the region of Lombardia, northern Italy, yesterday. The Lombardy cluster of COVID-19 was first registered in the tiny town of Codogno on February 19, when the first patient tested positive and has been a red zone until the end of seclusion and return of production in the recent days.