Italy’s Prime Minister Plans to Ease Restrictions and Sets a Date for the De-Escalation Phase to Begin

Italy’s Prime Minster, Giuseppe Conte, has stated that he has “reasonable foresight” to implement a plan on May 4, which will loosen the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“BEFORE the weekend I hope to communicate this step and explain the details outlined by this programme. A reasonable forecast is that we apply it from May 4,” explained the Italian politician in a message published via the government’s Facebook account.

Conte has outlined that his restrictions enabled as a result of the pandemic are set to last until May 3 and he understands the concern that companies and citizens have about returning to normality.

He has made it clear that although he would like to announce a return to normalcy as soon as “tomorrow morning,” this is impossible and that lowering restrictions must be done responsibly by following expert recommendations.

He said that he would “like to be able to say” that all businesses can “reopen” and quickly, however, “the government has put the protection of citizens’ health first, however, it is not insensitive to the objective of preserving productive system’s efficiency.”

The Italian Prime Minister has said that it would be “irresponsible” to remove all restrictions and stressed that such a decision could cause the curve of infections to increase again and would nullify “all efforts” made so far in the fight against Covid-19.

In this sense, he pointed out that during this new phase of the pandemic, Italians cannot afford to “act with improvisation” or “abandon the line of maximum caution” when dealing with this deadly virus.

“The relaxation of measures,” he stressed, “must be carried out on the basis of a well-structured and articulated plan. We must reopen on the basis of a programme that takes into account all the details and that cross references all the data. A serious and scientific programme. We cannot afford to leave out any details in particular,” he explained.

According to reports from the Johns Hopkins University, to date, the pandemic of the new coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has left more than 181,000 people infected in Italy and has killed more than 24,000 people.