Italy plans to open borders as Russia toll breaks record
Italy is set to open businesses from bars to hairdressers on Monday, while government decided to unblock national borders and allow citizens to move freely within the country starting June 3.
Italians will be allowed full free movement, according to a government decree published on Saturday. The statement confirmed that some businesses will reopen on Monday, while it stopped short of allowing social gatherings. Portugal, Spain and Greece also eased some of their measures, signalling optimism that southern Europe’s scarred economies can start to recover from the Covid-19 crisis. Italy said its daily virus-linked deaths fell to 242 on Friday from 262 a day earlier, and new cases was the lowest in four days.
RUSSIA SEES HIGHEST PER-DAY FATALITIES Russia on Saturday recorded its highest daily death toll, though new cases fell to the lowest level in two weeks. Russia is second in the world to the US with 272,043 cases, of which 9,200 were from Saturday, the lowest since May 2. But the number of deaths for the last 24 hours was the highest yet in Russia, at 119. The total number of officially confirmed deaths is now 2,537.
SLOVENIA DECLARES OUTBREAK IS OVER Slovenia opened its borders on Friday after declaring an end to its epidemic, despite new infections still being reported. “Today Slovenia has the best epidemic situation in Europe, which enables us to call off the general epidemic,” Prime Minister Janez Jansa said, two months after the epidemic was declared.