Italy to go into lockdown again in April

Italy will be placed under a rural lockout for the Easter weekend, as per a draft law resolution seen by Reuters on Friday as the government fought to stem a new boom in cases of coronavirus and hospitalizations. Non-essential stores will be closed nationwide from April 3 to April 5.

In those days, Italians were only allowed to leave their homes for work, health, or emergency reasons.

The draft decision also said that the curbs would be sharpened from Monday in the country's low-risk "yellow" regions, where movement between towns would be very limited, and restaurants and bars would be closed.

Along with nationwide measures, Italy calibrates restrictions in its 20 regions according to a four-color color-coded system (white, yellow, orange, and red) based on infection levels and is reviewed weekly.

In red areas, restaurants, bars, and non-essential shops were closed. By comparison, in white areas, restaurants can open at night.

The decision is expected to be approved later Friday.

Italy was the first Western country to apply a national exclusion last year as the virus took hold, and the country became a hub of the pandemic.

A gloomy milestone was reached this week when Italy recorded 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19 - a 'terrible threshold', new Prime Minister Mario Draghi said.

The recent increase in cases in Italy comes amid worldwide efforts to vaccinate populations against the virus.

Health Secretary Pierpaolo Sileri told Italian media on Thursday that he hoped two-thirds of the population would receive the first dose of vaccine by the summer and a second dose by October.