These rules are set to expire on Thursday and ministers agreed at a late Monday night cabinet meeting to return to the old, three-tier system, which allows for different measures to be applied to different regions. The government has also decided to postpone the Thursday reopening of high schools to 50% of their capacity until Monday. Some regions, including northern Veneto around Venice, have decided to delay the reopening until Jan 31. The government decree also extended to Jan 15 a ban already in place on movement between Italy's 20 regions, with travel permitted only for work, health or emergencies. Italy, the first Western country to be hit by COVID-19, has reported nearly 76,000 deaths since February, the fifth highest world tally.

Source: bd News24 January 05, 2021 08:15 UTC