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 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 1,733 new cases on Friday, the most since May 2, amid record testing. While numbers have been inching up all week, they’re well below the peak of 6,557 new infections on March 21 and the number of new cases recorded by other European countries such as France and Spain in recent days.
Conte doesn’t want to allow fans in soccer stadiums for the Serie A season starting later this month, he said. He also denied responsibility for the reopening of nightclubs during the summer, saying that the decision was taken by regions. In mid-August, the government ordered all nightclubs to close again.
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