Italy to relax its rigid lockdown on virus

Bloomberg

Italy will present a plan this week to ease its rigid lockdown, joining Germany, France and Austria in pursuing a gradual return to normality as coronavirus infection rates fall and pressure mounts to reopen businesses.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte aims to roll out a detailed restart program beginning on May 4, indicating that the process will take time to mitigate risks of re-igniting the spread of the disease.
“I would like to be able to say: we will open everything. Immediately. [Wednesday] morning,” Conte said in a post on Facebook. “But a decision like that would be irresponsible” and could “jeopardise all the efforts we’ve made until now.”
Italy’s commitment to ease restrictions is an important marker in Europe’s battle with the pandemic. The original centre of the continent’s outbreak suffered the most deaths after the US and has the third-most cases in the world.
With more than 100,000 fatalities in the region, Europe’s leaders are seeking to strike a balance between saving lives and securing jobs. The first steps to relax restrictions in Austria, Denmark and Norway are putting pressure on others to follow suit, despite the lack of treatments or a cure.
The current containment measures in Italy — in force since mid-March — currently shutter all non-essential businesses, ban movements within the country, and all but confine people to their homes except for buying food, going to work and seeking medical help.
Conte is juggling caution from scientific and public-health advisers, who insist the decline in new cases is still slow and relaxed restrictions could trigger a new outbreak, with demands from businesses and regional governors to restart the economy.
Similar pressures are playing out in capitals across Europe, and leaders are pleading for patience. Because of contagion risks, Munich cancelled its famed Oktoberfest for the first time since World War II, the latest sign that disruptions will linger for months to come.