Italian government not considering another lockdown despite rise in cases

The Italian government has ruled out the possibilities of imposing to lockdown to curb the coronavirus in the country despite witnessing a steady rise in new cases over the past month.

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Italy is one of the worst-hit European countries with over 35,000 deaths due to the virus. The country, on Saturday, reported 1,071 new infections exceeding 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since the government eased its rigid lockdown measures in May.

"We will not have a new lockdown," Speranza told the daily newspaper La Stampa, saying the current situation cannot be compared to February and March when the disease was spreading out of control, and it was difficult to track and isolate infected people.

"I am optimistic, although prudent. Our national health service has become much stronger."

According to Speranza, Italy has doubled the number of beds in intensive care units.

The cases of virus Italy remains considerably lower than those registered in Spain and France and daily death tolls are low.

Health Undersecretary Sandra Zampa told an Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that she was convinced Italy would not impose a nationwide lockdown but did not rule out restrictions on territories where there are spikes in infection numbers.

(Inputs from Reuters)