By , MILAN (Reuters) - Italy will allow factories and building sites to reopen from May 4 and permit limited family visits as it prepares a staged end to Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday.More than two months after the first case of COVID-19 appeared in a small town outside Milan and following weeks of lockdown, Italy is looking ahead to a second phase of the crisis in which it will attempt to restart the economy without triggering a new wave of infections.“We expect a very complex challenge,” Conte said as he outlined the road map to...…By , MILAN (Reuters) - Italy will allow factories and building sites to reopen from May 4 and permit limited family visits as it prepares a staged end to Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday.More than two months after the first case of COVID-19 appeared in a small town outside Milan and following weeks of lockdown, Italy is looking ahead to a second phase of the crisis in which it will attempt to restart the economy without triggering a new wave of infections.“We expect a very complex challenge,” Conte said as he outlined the road map to...WW…

By , ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday vaccines should for now on only be given to the elderly and appealed to regional governments and individuals not to flout his guidelines.Unlike many other European countries, when Italy launched its vaccination campaign at the end of December, its army of pensioners were not given automatic precedence, despite the fact that they have borne the brunt of the killer disease.The failure to provide swifter protection has cost thousands of lives, experts say.“Stop vaccinating people who are under 60, stop vaccinating young...…By , ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday vaccines should for now on only be given to the elderly and appealed to regional governments and individuals not to flout his guidelines.Unlike many other European countries, when Italy launched its vaccination campaign at the end of December, its army of pensioners were not given automatic precedence, despite the fact that they have borne the brunt of the killer disease.The failure to provide swifter protection has cost thousands of lives, experts say.“Stop vaccinating people who are under 60, stop vaccinating young...WW…

ROME --All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said on Wednesday, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against 'no-vax' sentiment.Italy has an entrenched anti-vaccination movement and the recent discovery of clusters in hospitals after staff refused to have shots has sparked outcry in a country where more than 109,000 people have died of the disease.However government critics have questioned the legality of forcing only some categories of workers into having a vaccine.Wednesday's decree approved by Prime...…ROME --All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said on Wednesday, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against 'no-vax' sentiment.Italy has an entrenched anti-vaccination movement and the recent discovery of clusters in hospitals after staff refused to have shots has sparked outcry in a country where more than 109,000 people have died of the disease.However government critics have questioned the legality of forcing only some categories of workers into having a vaccine.Wednesday's decree approved by Prime...WW…

By , ROME (Reuters) - Mario Draghi’s prospects of forming a government in Italy were boosted on Saturday when the two largest parties in parliament, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the rightist League, both gave him their conditional backing.However, Draghi’s route to power is still not clear. Both parties said his policy proposals would be the key to securing their support, and it may be some time before he is able to put together a coalition able to muster a parliamentary majority.Having completed a first round of formal consultations with parties on Saturday, Draghi will hold...…By , ROME (Reuters) - Mario Draghi’s prospects of forming a government in Italy were boosted on Saturday when the two largest parties in parliament, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the rightist League, both gave him their conditional backing.However, Draghi’s route to power is still not clear. Both parties said his policy proposals would be the key to securing their support, and it may be some time before he is able to put together a coalition able to muster a parliamentary majority.Having completed a first round of formal consultations with parties on Saturday, Draghi will hold...WW…

By , , ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won a crucial confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday, hanging on to power after a junior partner quit his coalition and opened a political crisis amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.Had he lost the vote, Conte would have been forced to resign.After his appeal to opposition and non-aligned lawmakers to back him following last week’s walk-out by former premier Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva party, Conte’s government won the lower-house vote by 321 to 259.The margin was wider than expected and gave the government an absolute...…By , , ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte won a crucial confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday, hanging on to power after a junior partner quit his coalition and opened a political crisis amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.Had he lost the vote, Conte would have been forced to resign.After his appeal to opposition and non-aligned lawmakers to back him following last week’s walk-out by former premier Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva party, Conte’s government won the lower-house vote by 321 to 259.The margin was wider than expected and gave the government an absolute...WW…

By ROME (Reuters) - Italy ramped up coronavirus restrictions in Tuscany and four other regions, effective on Wednesday, to rein in the second wave of the pandemic, a health ministry source said on Monday.Last week, the government imposed nationwide curbs including a nightly curfew, and divided the country into three zones based on the intensity of their COVID-19 outbreaks, calibrating additional limitations accordingly.Tuscany, which includes the cities of Florence and Siena; Liguria; Abruzzo; Umbria and the southern Basilicata region are designated as ‘orange zones’ where bars and...…By ROME (Reuters) - Italy ramped up coronavirus restrictions in Tuscany and four other regions, effective on Wednesday, to rein in the second wave of the pandemic, a health ministry source said on Monday.Last week, the government imposed nationwide curbs including a nightly curfew, and divided the country into three zones based on the intensity of their COVID-19 outbreaks, calibrating additional limitations accordingly.Tuscany, which includes the cities of Florence and Siena; Liguria; Abruzzo; Umbria and the southern Basilicata region are designated as ‘orange zones’ where bars and...WW…

By , ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s latest restrictions to try to rein in the coronavirus include a partial lockdown of its richest and most populous region Lombardy around the financial capital Milan, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday.Earlier, the government published its new package of measures which toughen up nationwide curbs and divide the country into three zones - red, orange and yellow, according to the intensity of the epidemic.The zoning depends on a raft of factors including local infection rates and hospital occupancy, with restrictions will calibrated accordingly.In the...…By , ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s latest restrictions to try to rein in the coronavirus include a partial lockdown of its richest and most populous region Lombardy around the financial capital Milan, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday.Earlier, the government published its new package of measures which toughen up nationwide curbs and divide the country into three zones - red, orange and yellow, according to the intensity of the epidemic.The zoning depends on a raft of factors including local infection rates and hospital occupancy, with restrictions will calibrated accordingly.In the...WW…

Want to discuss? Please read our first.AdvertisementClose XAAROME — Italy on Wednesday made it mandatory to wear outdoors nationwide in an effort to reduce rising infections, the health ministry said after the cabinet agreed on the measure.After curbing the epidemic by imposing a rigid lockdown between March and May, Italy has seen a steady increase in new cases in the last two months, reporting an average of more than 2,400 infections daily in the past week, a Reuters tally shows.The decree imposing masks outdoors will probably be effective from Thursday, a government source said. [...…Want to discuss? Please read our first.AdvertisementClose XAAROME — Italy on Wednesday made it mandatory to wear outdoors nationwide in an effort to reduce rising infections, the health ministry said after the cabinet agreed on the measure.After curbing the epidemic by imposing a rigid lockdown between March and May, Italy has seen a steady increase in new cases in the last two months, reporting an average of more than 2,400 infections daily in the past week, a Reuters tally shows.The decree imposing masks outdoors will probably be effective from Thursday, a government source said. [...WW…

By , ROME (Reuters) - Shops and restaurants closed, hundreds of flights were canceled and streets emptied across Italy on Tuesday, the first day of an unprecedented, nationwide lockdown imposed to slow Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus.Just hours after the dramatic new restrictions came into force, health authorities announced the death toll had jumped by 168 to 631, the largest rise in absolute numbers since the contagion came to light on Feb. 21.The total number of confirmed cases rose at a much slower rate than recently seen, hitting 10,149 against a previous 9,172, but officials...…By , ROME (Reuters) - Shops and restaurants closed, hundreds of flights were canceled and streets emptied across Italy on Tuesday, the first day of an unprecedented, nationwide lockdown imposed to slow Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus.Just hours after the dramatic new restrictions came into force, health authorities announced the death toll had jumped by 168 to 631, the largest rise in absolute numbers since the contagion came to light on Feb. 21.The total number of confirmed cases rose at a much slower rate than recently seen, hitting 10,149 against a previous 9,172, but officials...WW…