Italians protest Covid-19 curbs

Protesters turned out by the hundreds in Turin, Milan and other Italian cities and towns on Monday to vent their anger, sometimes violently, at the latest pandemic restrictions that force restaurants and cafes to close early and shutter cinemas, gyms and other leisure venues.

In the northern city of Turin, some demonstrators broke off from a peaceful protest, smashing store windows on an elegant shopping street, setting smoke bombs and hurling bottles at police in a main city square where the Piedmont regional government is headquartered, RAI state TV said.

Police fired tear gas to clear the protesters in Piazza del Castello.

In that same square, hours earlier, some 300 taxis peacefully lined up in neat rows to draw attention to their economic losses from the implosion of tourism and disappearance of workers from the city centre as they do their jobs remotely during the pandemic. over.

Overall, samples from hundreds of thousands of people across England between midJune and late September showed the prevalence of virus antibodies fell by more than a quarter. The research, commissioned by the British government and published Tuesday by Imperial, indicates people’s immune response to Covid-19 reduces over time following infection. and over 2.13 million test results have been returned.

All the positive results were traced to the Shufu county of Kashgar prefecture where a 17-year-old girl had tested positive over the weekend. the world’s fourth largest case load, ordered people across the country on Tuesday to wear facemasks in some public places and asked regional authorities to consider shutting bars and restaurants overnight to counter the virus.

Even Germany, widely praised for its initial response to the pandemic, signalled concern on Tuesday over rising infections, with economy minister Peter Altmaier saying the country was likely to reach 20,000 cases a day by the end of this week.

Altmaier said the Europewide epidemic would make it harder for economic growth to rebound as quickly as previously hoped. Underscoring the financial concerns, European equities fell in early trading as risk-aversion swept markets.