Italy Won’t Need an Autumn Lockdown, Prime Minister Says
Italy’s Conte ‘Confident’ That Autumn Lockdown Won’t Be Needed
(Bloomberg) --
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that coronavirus outbreaks this autumn may prompt local restrictions but not a nationwide lockdown.
“I am confident,” Conte said at an event organized by the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper. “We won’t find ourselves in a situation to order a general lockdown. At worst, we’ll have to intervene in a targeted way, with restrictive measures for narrowly defined areas.”
Italy reported 1,695 new cases on Saturday, less than 40 fewer than a four-month high recorded Friday. While numbers have been inching up all week amid record testing, they’re well below the daily peak of 6,557 infections on March 21 and recent spikes in European countries such as France and Spain.
Conte said he doesn’t want to allow fans in soccer stadiums for the Serie A season starting Sept. 19. He also rejected responsibility for the reopening of nightclubs during the summer, saying that the decision was taken by regions. In mid-August, the government in Rome ordered all nightclubs to close again.
With Italy set to receive 209 billion euros ($247 billion) from the European Union’s package of pandemic recovery grants and loans, Conte said the money won’t be used for cutting taxes, one of his government’s objectives.
“Our ideas are very clear: We’re not asking for European funds to lower taxes but to carry out all the projects within a coherent framework that will be inherited by the future generations, a plan to relaunch the country,” Conte told the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy.
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