A worker sprays disinfectant outside a restaurant in Rome, Italy, May 15, 2020. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)
Any of those steps could be tightened, delayed, or even canceled if the data on the outbreak in Italy worsened, said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
ROME, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The Italian government's daily report on COVID-19 has taken on new importance in recent days, with Italians watching out for signs of reversed recovery following the country's recent tentative loosening of the national lockdown.
Italy took its major step towards loosening the lockdown restrictions on May 4 after a nearly eight-week national lockdown. Medical experts say the coronavirus has a minimum incubation period of a week to 10 days, which means anyone infected with the virus in the first days under the loosened lockdown restrictions could already start to appear in the statistics.
A worker disinfects a hair salon which is about to resume operation in Rome, Italy, May 14, 2020. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)
So far, the data is mixed. Rates remain well below their peaks from late March and early April. But over the five days leading up to Saturday, Italy's coronavirus death toll rose for three straight days before falling for the next two days. The number of new infections recorded over the same span has gone up and down, including both the second-lowest one-day total since March and the highest one-day total since the start of May.
"We can't draw sharp conclusions yet, but what I think we can say is that the situation is still improving but it is doing so at a slower rate," Giovanni Maga, head of the DNA Enzymology and Molecular Virology Section Institute of Molecular Genetics IGM-CNR National Research Council, told Xinhua. "We don't have to be worried yet, but we need to keep a close watch on what happens."
Since May 4, Italians have been allowed to leave their homes to visit family members in small groups, and restaurants and bars that had previously been limited to delivery services have been allowed to offer takeaway options.
The country is set to further ease the lockdown measures on Monday, with shops, restaurants, bars, barbershops, beauty salons, museums, and beachfront entities all allowed to reopen as long as they respect rules for social distancing amid staff and members of the public and disinfecting facilities. Italians will be allowed to move within the region they live in.
After that, lockdown rules are scheduled to be further eased in June, when Italians will be allowed to move around the country without restrictions and foreign tourists will be allowed to visit the country without the need to be quarantined on arrival.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addresses the Senate in Rome, Italy, March 26, 2020. (Xinhua)
But Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who, pollsters say, has seen his approval levels improve due to his handling of the crisis, has also said that any of those steps could be tightened, delayed, or even canceled if the data on the outbreak in Italy worsened.
"Surveys show that Italians are being very cautious," Maria Rossi, co-founder of Opinioni, a polling firm, said in an interview. "That's in part because they are worried about their health and the health of their friends and loved ones. But it's also because they don't want to lose the gains that have been made. They don't want to have to go back to full lockdown."
A man waits for customers at an ice cream shop in Rome, Italy, May 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)
According to Fabrizio Pregliasco, a researcher at the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health at the University of Milan, the next 10 days will create a fuller picture of how Italy's fight against the outbreak is progressing.
"So far, the differences we're seeing in the mortality rate or new infections could be due to localized factors," Pregliasco told Xinhua. "The picture will become clearer with time."
Maga agreed, saying, "We're seeing different stories in different regions." The virologist explained, "Things are improving slower in Lombardy (the Italian region hit hardest by the outbreak), while some parts of the country so far have not had big problems." ■
