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  • Coronavirus. Italy totals 837 deaths in one day, but infections continue to fall

The Government has extended "until April 13 all measures to limit individual activities and travel until that date," the Italian Health Minister, Roberto Speranza , announced this Wednesday in the Senate. "We should not make mistakes now because there is a risk of compromising the sacrifices we are making. Nor should we confuse the first positive signs as a sign of cessation of alarm," he warned.

Regarding this extension, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said that "loosening the measures now would make our efforts futile."

This Wednesday, the deceased amount to 13,155 -after registering 727 in the last 24 hours, it is the lowest number of deaths in a week. Total infections throughout the country are 110,574, that is to say 4,782 more than yesterday. The new infections in 24 hours are 2,937, which brings the positives to 80,572 today. And the total number of people registered is already 16,847, Civil Protection has announced in its daily balance. In Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the virus, today there were only 44 more hospitalized people, 1,565 new infections, 394 deaths, data that for the regional health adviser, Giulio Gallera , are "positive" as there is a trend and there is no large increases.

Despite the good data from the past few days, today it has been known that in the first 21 days of March, deaths in northern Italy more than doubled compared to the 2015-19 average. These are data from the National Statistics Institute in a report on mortality, which takes into account 1,084 municipalities and which particularly highlights the situation in Bergamo, where deaths have almost quadrupled "going from an average of 91 cases in 2015-2019 to 398 in 2020. "

Experts, Speranza added, say "we are on the right track and that the drastic measures taken are beginning to pay off." "But it would be an unforgivable mistake to confuse this first result with a definitive defeat of the coronavirus, it is a long battle and we must not let our guard down." "For a short period of time we will have to be able to manage a transition phase," said the minister. "It will be essential to graduate the reduction of current limitations by taking appropriate and proportional preventive measures to prevent serious new outbreaks of infection," he added.

Permission to children

The controversy came yesterday when, despite the insistence of experts on maintaining strict measures of confinement, the Government gave in to requests that the children be allowed to go out. By means of a circular, the Ministry of the Interior clarified the interpretation of the norms contained in the government decree on walking and traveling, and insisted: no existing regulation is modified.

Interior pointed out that regarding the permission to go for a walk or run near home, minors may also do it while accompanied by a parent and in the vicinity of home.

For three weeks, Italy decreed the isolation of its population due to the pandemic and it is only allowed to leave home to buy basic necessities or for health or work reasons. People of affluence were allowed to take a walk near their homes, but alone, which excluded being able to go out with their children.

Conte has specified that "a walk time with the children has not been authorized , but when a father goes to the shopping, the company of a child can also be allowed. But it should not be an opportunity to go for a walk".

Associations of psychologists, educators and parents asked Rome to take into account children and all "people of developing age, that is, minors between 0 and 18 years old, so that they can carry out outdoor physical and recreational activities" .

Mattarella's Message

The President of Italy today sent a message of encouragement to the nation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic: "It is a problematic period, but together we will overcome this difficult time," said Sergio Mattarella , who wanted to address the thousands of citizens who are writing to him. concerned about the health emergency in the transalpine country, and especially in the northern region.

"The President of the Republic, faced with the impossibility of personally responding to all who come to him, thanks and expresses to each one his personal closeness in this turbulent period in our history," the statement read. Mattarella receives every day "numerous correspondence, especially by email, from individual citizens, mayors, associations, expressing their considerations, concerns, suggestions, proposals and critical comments." Just a few days ago, the Head of State addressed the nation with another message: "Europe understands the seriousness of the threat, or it will be late."

Rome today announced that regional elections in Veneto, Liguria, Marche, Tuscany, Campania and Pugli are delayed until probably next autumn.

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