Home Culture and Society Italy Shops Reopen as Rome Lockdown Eases (04/21/2020)

Italy Shops Reopen as Rome Lockdown Eases (04/21/2020)

Some bookshops reopened in Rome, Monday, April 20, after two months of lockdown to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Authorities said some shops could open provided they could maintain the same social-distancing and sanitary measures required in supermarkets.

Six shoppers were only allowed in Rome’s Feltrinelli bookshop at any time. Rubber gloves were available at the entrance, while face masks were not provided, but were considered a requirement to enter. Italy on Sunday registered the lowest number of deaths of people with coronavirus in a month, with the death toll rising by 433 in the last 24 hours, bringing the national total to 23,660, still the second-highest in the world after the United States. So far Italy has 178,972 positive cases of infection of the new virus. Italy was the first western country to be hit by the coronavirus in late February, and now authorities have begun discussions on how to ease a nationwide lockdown, which has been extended through May 3. Several countries, including Germany, Albania, Sri Lanka, and Norway, are gingerly taking steps to relax lockdown orders imposed to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.