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Italy Plans To Lift Some Coronavirus Travel Restrictions Early Next Month

Pedestrians in face masks pass a mural in Naples depicting the city's patron saint, St. Gennaro, in a face mask too. Italy has set a timeline for lifting its strict coronavirus travel restrictions, after its outbreak overwhelmed medical centers across the country earlier this year.
Carlo Hermann
/
AFP via Getty Images
Pedestrians in face masks pass a mural in Naples depicting the city's patron saint, St. Gennaro, in a face mask too. Italy has set a timeline for lifting its strict coronavirus travel restrictions, after its outbreak overwhelmed medical centers across the country earlier this year.

Italy has taken another major step in its emergence from one of the world's strictest coronavirus lockdowns. In a decree issued early Saturday, the Italian government laid out its timeline for lifting restrictions on domestic and foreign travel.

Come Monday, people will be allowed to move freely within their own region, and on June 3, officials expect to lift their blanket ban on travel to and from the country. The decision, which follows a meeting of the prime minister's cabinet Friday, opens a door to foreign visitors and tourists that has been closed since the implementation of rigorous travel restrictions in mid-March, at the height of the country's desperate battle with the coronavirus.

Italy has lost more than 31,600 people to the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University — the third-highest death toll in the world, behind only the U.S. and the United Kingdom. At the apparent peak of its outbreak, the country's hardest-hit cities — such as Bergamo, in the north — saw their medical centers overwhelmed and their local papers bloated with obituary sections that extended for pages.

But lately the country has had cause for hope. Italy has reported a general decline in its tally of new confirmed cases each day over the past several weeks, from totals numbering in the thousands to those in the hundreds.

Officials began easing lockdown measures earlier this month, when parks and factories were allowed to reopen and millions of people across the country returned to work. On Monday, the list of businesses allowed to reopen expands considerably, with shops and restaurants included.

The Vatican also expects to reopen its doors to the public Monday for Mass, with visitors expected to get their temperature checked before they are admitted.

Elsewhere in Europe, officials are eyeing reopening schedules of their own. Just across the Ionian Sea, Greece opened up its beaches Saturday to visitors who were required to abide by social distancing — while the U.K., which surpassed Italy with the deadliest outbreak in Europe earlier this month, has laid out its plans for the next stage of its coronavirus response.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Colin Dwyer covers breaking news for NPR. He reports on a wide array of subjects — from politics in Latin America and the Middle East, to the latest developments in sports and scientific research.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.