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Rome (AP) - Italy tightened the corona restrictions from Christmas to the beginning of January.
The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on late Friday evening.
From December 24th to January 6th, a lockdown (red zone) applies to the Mediterranean country on and before the holidays.
Only on four days did the country switch back to a partial lockdown (orange zone).
For the people in the country with around 60 million inhabitants, the red zone means closed shops, bars and restaurants.
Shops for daily needs such as supermarkets and pharmacies are open.
Take-away can also be sold.
People are only allowed to leave the house under certain conditions, for example to go to work or to the doctor;
to do sports alone or to do necessary things like shopping.
Travel between regions is prohibited.
Visits to friends or parents are only allowed in pairs during the day.
Children younger than 14 years are not included.
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The rules of the orange zone should apply on December 28th, 29th and 30th as well as on January 4th.
Shops will then be open again, but bars and restaurants will remain closed, except for take-away sales.
People can move freely again within the municipalities.
Before the decision, the northeastern region of Veneto had already adopted stricter rules.
As of Saturday, it should not be allowed to move between the municipalities after 2 p.m., except for work or health reasons.
Liguria's President Giovanni Toti described the changes to the corona rules on a few days over Christmas in advance of Conte's decision as "unjust".
In Liguria, the curve of new infections shows steadily downwards.
At the beginning of the month, the government had already introduced stricter rules for the period between Christmas and New Year.
Ski areas were closed until the beginning of January, travel was restricted from December 21, and a quarantine for travelers from abroad was decided.
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With the rules, the government in Rome wants to prevent more people from contracting the corona virus again, for example at large family celebrations at Christmas.
This should also prevent a third wave at the beginning of next year.
Italy was hit hard by the corona pandemic.
On Friday, authorities reported almost 18,000 new infections and around 670 people who died from the coronavirus within one day.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 67,000 people have died with Sars-CoV-2 and more than 1.9 million infections have been registered since the pandemic began.
Most recently, the number of new infections had gradually decreased.
However, health ministry experts are still concerned about the high number of deaths and people in intensive care units.
The reproductive value, which indicates how many people an infected person infects on average, was below one according to the latest findings - a sign that the pandemic is weakening.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201218-99-749831 / 3