Coronavirus in Italy: Giuseppe Conte announces new restrictions despite protests

10/25/2020 9:41 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 10/25/2020 9:45 AM

The Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, signed a decree with

, including the obligation to close bars and restaurants at 6 p.m., given the rise in daily coronavirus infections.

In recent days, new records were registered since the beginning of the pandemic, in the middle of the second wave of cases of in the country.

Conte ordered until November 24 the

at 6

throughout Italy, in a new battery of measures that seeks to restrict the movement of people without reaching a generalized quarantine such as the one that was ordered in the country between March and May.

The new decree, published by the newspapers Repubblica, Corriere and La Stampa in facsimile version, was signed late on Saturday after a Cabinet meeting in which the Governors of the 20 regions of the country also participated, remotely, reported the RAI string.

Bar and restaurant owners protested this Sunday morning in Rome over the new restrictions.

Photo EFE.

The new measures, which include a

, come amid a significant rise in daily cases, which went from an average of 2,500 per day in the first week of October to 19,640 reported this Saturday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.

Currently Italy exceeds 500,000 infections.

The 12-article decree also requires that a minimum of 75% of the classes in the last cycle of secondary schools, the so-called "higher school", be done remotely.

The new provisions present in the twenty-second decree signed by Conte since the beginning of the pandemic, which will be in force from tomorrow, also include the

throughout Italy.

In addition, the prime minister decided to extend until November 24 the obligation to wear a chinstrap in open places.

The new decree of the national government is given while there are already five regions with

 and the number of victims since the beginning of the pandemic reaches 37,210 people.

Protesters clashed with the police on Saturday night, against the curfew.

AFP photo.

Meanwhile, during the early hours of Sunday, dozens of far-right

clashed with Rome's riot police.

There were about 200 militants with their faces covered belonging to the neo-fascist group Forza Nuova, who fired projectiles at the police and burned garbage containers.

The protesters, in the Piazza dei Popolo, in the historic center of the capital, waited a minute before midnight to launch fireworks in the colors of the Italian flag, don balaclavas and launch flares and firecrackers at the police.

Seven protesters were arrested, and two police officers were injured, according to the daily La Repubblica.

With information from Télam.

Look also

Curfew protests grow as coronavirus soars in Italy

Europe extends the curfew due to the coronavirus: could that measure be considered in Argentina?