Rome (AFP)

Cinemas, theaters, closed gyms, restaurants and bars banned from serving after 6 p.m. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Sunday tightened restrictions against the coronavirus pandemic, after the publication of record figures.

The head of government’s decision comes despite opposition from regional governors and the nightly demonstrations that took place this weekend against the curfew.

From Monday, cinemas, theaters, gyms and swimming pools will have to close until November 24 according to these new restrictions, while bars and restaurants will have to stop serving after 6 p.m., announced the services of the Prime Minister.

Some 20,000 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the last 24 hours in Italy, according to the count announced by the authorities on Saturday, a national record.

In total, more than 500,000 cases of infection and 37,000 deaths have been recorded in the first European country to be hit hard by the pandemic.

"The objective is clear: to keep the contagion curve under control, because it is the only way to be able to manage the pandemic without being overwhelmed," the Prime Minister explained at a press conference on Sunday.

He added that these measures were necessary to avoid a re-containment like that of spring, "which the country can no longer afford".

Schools and kindergartens will remain open, however, with 75% of classes in high schools and universities being held online.

The population was called upon to avoid public transport and travel outside their neighborhoods as much as possible.

"This will destroy us," responded Augusto d'Alfonsi, owner of a family fish restaurant, Torricella, in Rome.

"We have already lost 50 percent of our customers this year. Without government assistance, we are finished," he told AFP.

The new measures were announced hours after a protest against the curfew of some 200 masked activists of the neo-fascist group Forza Nuova, who clashed with riot forces overnight from Saturday to Sunday in central Rome .

In Naples (south), incidents had already broken out the previous night, when young people opposing the curfew had confronted the police.

- "The curfew does not work" -

These incidents follow the decisions taken this week to impose a curfew in three regions: those of Rome (Lazio), from midnight to 5 a.m., and those of Milan (Lombardy) and Naples (Campania) from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. .

Piedmont in the north and Sicily in the south are due to follow this week.

But regional governors have warned that shutting down businesses will exacerbate social tensions as the spring lockdown plunged Italy into its worst post-war economic recession.

Giuseppe Spadafora, number two in the business lobby Unimpresa, warned that "anger could explode in the days and weeks to come, and become difficult to control".

The Prime Minister was, however, under intense pressure from the scientific community, which asked him to act to combat the spread of the virus.

"It's a complex moment, there is a lot of fatigue in the country," admitted Mr. Conte.

"The pandemic constitutes a severe challenge for us, it causes anger, frustration. It also creates new inequalities (...)", he added.

But he warned that it was not necessary "to leave the latitude to those who specialize in protests and social disorders", following the demonstration of the extreme right in Rome and information according to which that of Naples would have been orchestrated by organized crime.

For his part, the adviser of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Italian government, Walter Ricciardi, warned that there were only "a few weeks left to intervene".

"We need local, and even regional, lockdowns. The curfew is not working," he told Il Messaggero newspaper.

Around 100 scientists this week called on the government to act, after a renowned doctor, Giorgio Parisi, warned the country would have a death rate of 500 per day by mid-November if new measures were not adopted .

"In March, we were about to be hit by a truck traveling at 130 kilometers per hour. Today it is heading towards us at 60 kilometers per hour," he said on Saturday. at La Repubblica.

"We have time to dodge it, but if we don't, even if it goes slower, it will still kill us."

© 2020 AFP