Italy’s Daily CCP Virus Death Toll Climbs, Lockdown Measures Eased

Pigeons gather on Piazza del Duomo by Milan's cathedral on March 10, 2020. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)

Italy on Tuesday reported 602 deaths from the CCP virus in the past 24 hours as the country started to allow some businesses and shops to reopen after the government announced a nationwide lockdown more than a month ago.

The total death toll since the outbreak began in the country has risen to 21,067, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Agency. Officials said that 566 people died the day before.

Meanwhile, the agency reported that new infections have slowed to 2,972 from 3,153, which is the lowest daily tally in a month, according to Reuters.

The number of officially confirmed cases increased to 162,488, which is the second-highest in Europe after Spain. Around 3,186 people are in intensive care on Tuesday, compared with 3,260 a day before that. In all, 37,130 were deemed recovered after 35,435 were reported to have recovered a day earlier.

It comes as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree allowing book shops, dry cleaners, laundromats, stationery shops, and clothing stores for children and babies to open again, The Local reported. Some forestry, landscape care, and maintenance and hydraulic works can resume production, as can computer manufacturers and sellers of paper products.

Italian regions can impose stricter restrictions on what shops can open. According to The Local, the Piedmont region will not allow any new shops to reopen, while the region of Sardinia will allow businesses to reopen on April 26, and Lazio will only allow bookstores to open on April 20.

A Carabinieri officer blocks the road traffic as a convoy of military vehicles arrives at the Monumental Cemetery in Bergamo, near Milan, Italy, on March 26, 2020. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

An earlier order stipulated that only supermarkets, pharmacies, and other shops are the only places that can remain open during the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus pandemic.

“We need to pick sectors that can restart their activity. If scientists confirm it, we might begin to relax some measures already by the end of this month [April],” Conte told the BBC earlier this month.

The CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, has spread aggressively across the world, with a Johns Hopkins tally noting around 2 million infections globally.

In Italy, 109 doctors have died on the frontlines of the outbreak, according to an Italian doctors’ association.

The editorial board of the Italian Association of Doctors (FNOMCeO) updated on April 9 its running tally of doctors who died amid response efforts in the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the sad list of doctors who have fallen during the COVID-19 epidemic is growing,” FNOMCeO’s board wrote in a note accompanying the tally, to which six new names were added on April 9.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.