Italy has unveiled a record 400 billion euro ( USD 430 billion) stimulus to help businesses hurt by a month-long national lockdown that is like to run on for many more weeks.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday told the nation to be patient in the face of a pandemic that has now officially claimed 16,523 lives in the Mediterranean country and left millions at least temporarily unemployed “We will soon see a new spring for Italy but for the moment we must stay at home,” the Italian leader said in a television address.<\/p>\n
The programme will add to the 340 billion euros in government-backed loans announced last month.<\/p>\n
Conte said it represented “the most powerful intervention in the country’s history”.<\/p>\n
Half of the new package will be earmarked for export-oriented companies whose turnover has imploded over the past month.<\/p>\n
Italy’s health “emergency is also an economic and social one,” Conte said.<\/p>\n
The government also announced that it will take steps to protect Italian companies weakened by the economic crisis from being taken over by foreign competitors.<\/p>\n
“This moment of difficult will not translate into an opportunity to prey on Italian companies,” cabinet undersecretary Riccardo Fraccaro said.<\/p>\n
Italy has seen its novel coronavirus infection rates subside over the past few weeks and its death toll slowly level off.<\/p>\n
But the number of fatalities shot back up on Monday from its lowest level in more than two weeks.<\/p>\n
The civil protection service said the daily number of official COVID-19 deaths rose to 636 on Monday from 525 the day before.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s toll was the lowest since March 19.<\/p>\n
It also represented a drop of 23 percent from the 681 deaths reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Italy’s leading health officials had called Sunday’s drop an important data point that could potentially lead to an easing of the country’s strict month-long lockdown.<\/p>\n
But civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli said Monday that the data were still being carefully assessed and that any definitive ruling was premature.<\/p>\n
“The technical-scientific committee is currently carrying out its evaluations. Then, it will be up to the political decision makers,” Borrelli told reporters.<\/p>\n
He said the scientists will draw their conclusions about how to proceed “in due time”.<\/p>\n
Italy’s current lockdown has been officially extended to April 13.<\/p>\n
Conte has repeatedly stressed that businesses will only be allowed to open up gradually and that many of the current social distancing measures will stay in place for some time.<\/p>\n
But he has refrained from saying when this might happen. Some officials have suggested that most of the current measures will be extended until at least the start of May.<\/p>\n
Yet some of the data released Monday looked encouraging.<\/p>\n
The daily rise in new infections dropped to a record low of just 2.8 per cent.<\/p>\n
The number of people receiving intensive care treatment for COVID-19 fell for a third successive day.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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