ITALY LOCKS DOWN MILAN, MUCH OF INDUSTRIAL NORTHERN REGION

Italy’s latest restrictions to try to rein in the coronavirus include a partial lockdown of its richest and most populous region Lombardy around the financial capital Milan, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, Gavin Jones and Angelo Amante reported for Reuters.

Earlier, the government published its new package of measures which toughen up nationwide curbs and divide the country into three zones - red, orange and yellow, according to the intensity of the epidemic. 

The zoning depends on a raft of factors including local infection rates and hospital occupancy, with restrictions calibrated accordingly. In the critically affected red zones people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work, health reasons or emergencies and bars, restaurants and most shops will be closed. High school classes and those for the final two years of middle school will be moved online. However, unlike Italy’s national lockdown in the spring, all factories will remain open. 

“Our intensive care capacity could be exhausted in a matter of weeks, we have to intervene,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at a news conference to illustrate the package which comes into effect November 6, 2020.