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New COVID-19 infections low in several parts of Italy

Published:Saturday | May 23, 2020 | 12:00 AMAP
People enjoy sitting in a park in central Milan, northern Italy, during the first weekend after a two-month lock down, today. Since Monday, Italians have regained freedoms, including being able to sit down at a cafe or restaurant, shop in all retail stores or attend church services, such as Mass after a partial lifting of restriction measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 (AP).

(AP): Italy, today, registered 669 new cases of COVID-19, two-thirds of them in the northern region of Lombardy, which has been the hardest-hit since the outbreak began.

Figures from the most recent 24-hour period since Friday evening saw 119 deaths registered. Officially, Italy has 32,735 deaths from COVID-19.

According to Health Ministry data, the latest cases raised the nation’s overall tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 229,327. All of Italy’s regions, with the exception of Lombardy, registered no more than a few dozen new cases each on Saturday, and many regions had numbers of new infections in the single digits.

Eager to revive tourism, the government has said people will be allowed to resume travel between regions starting June 3, but travel restrictions could remain if there’s an up tick of infections.

Italy eased many stay-at-home restrictions on May 18, including allowing public masses to be held and restaurants and cafés to serve sit-down customers.

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