Italy’s virus deaths fall but WHO says too soon to reopen the country
Italy’s daily death toll from the novel coronavirus epidemic fell to 542 on Wednesday, while a top public health official warned it was still too early to ease lockdown measures.
It is only the second time in nearly three weeks that the daily death count has fallen under 600. On Tuesday it stood at 604, and it peaked at 969 on March 27.
The overall death toll reached 17,669, the Civil Protection Agency said in its bulletin. Italy remains the country with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus.
The infections count rose by 3,836, or 2.8 per cent, to 139,422, and confirmed Italy as the world’s third-most-infected country after the United States and Spain.
“It is quite difficult to consider reopening [the country] in these conditions,” World Health Organization (WHO) assistant director-general Ranieri Guerra said in Rome as the data was presented.
Italy’s contagion curve is flattening but not yet falling, and there is “no precise knowledge of how the virus has evolved and how it may evolve,” he stressed.
Guerra said it would be possible to assess the risk of the various options for a gradual reopening, but those should be implemented only once the contagion curve goes down.
There is talk of easing restrictions for particular economic sectors, geographical areas or people under a certain age, keeping the elderly, who are more vulnerable, confined at home.
Italy has been under lockdown since March 10, longer than any other Western nation, and the government is under strong pressure to relax at least some measures by starting a so-called “phase two.”
A decision is due by Monday, when current restrictions expire. Most commentators expect restrictions to stay in place at least until after a May Day bank holiday ends on May 4.
Four regional branches of Confindustria, Italy’s main business lobby, which represents the country’s most productive areas, issued a statement saying: “It is time to put into practice phase 2.”
They stressed how their regions of Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Veneto and Piedmont represent 45 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the “heart” of its economy.
If these regions “cannot reopen shortly, the country risks shutting down its [economic] engine for good and each day that passes makes it more difficult to restart it,” the statement added.
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Italian bank UniCredit has predicted a record 15-per-cent fall in GDP this year, while national statistics agency Istat has forecast 385,000-900,000 job losses depending on the length of the lockdown.
There were more hopeful statistics from the Civil Protection Agency, as it noted that Wednesday’s jump in recovering patients, by more than 2,000 to 26,491, was a single-day record.
Also, the number of people in intensive care continued to fall, offering more breathing space to beleaguered hospitals. On Wednesday it was down by 99, to 3,693. (dpa)
