Italy continues to reduce the number of coronavirus deaths and this Saturday announced that it had recorded 415 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest number since 17 March, according to the official count.
The number of deaths since the emergency began on 21 February is 26,384 people and the patients currently ill are 105,847, or 680 positives less in 24 hours, according to Civil Protection.
In the same period, 2,357 new contagions have been counted, the lowest number since 21 April, reinforcing the idea that Italy continues to control the transmission curve of the virus.
There are also 2,622 new patients cured and the number of hospitalized and admitted to intensive care units has been reduced (the latter are 71 fewer since Friday).
The good news coincided with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of fascism in 1945, an ephemeris that Italians have lived confined, from their homes, by the mobility restrictions imposed by the Government to tackle the pandemic.
The confinement has not prevented many from having celebrated the national festival from their balconies and windows, where they have gone out with Italian flags to sing the traditional Partisan anthem ‘Bella Ciao’, a gesture with which unity has been wanted.
Miitarous planes flew over a deserted Rome in the meantime to paint in the skies of the Italian capital the three colors of the flag of the country; green, white and red.
This is a historic date, as each year the country remembers how it was raised in 1945 against Nazi troops, took control of the northern cities and freed itself from the German yoke.
Although the more than 60 million Italians have lived this day locked in their homes, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, wanted to pay a solo tribute at the Altar of the Fatherland of Rome’s Venice Square.
Early in the morning, Mattarella approached the monument to Victor Manuel II, alone and in mask, and has climbed the long staircase to the tomb to the unknown soldier, where two coracles, also with masks, were waiting for him, who have worn a wreath of flowers.
The Italian Government finalizes the country’s reopening plan from 4 May, after almost two months of confinement.
The extraordinary commissioner appointed for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri, said today that serological tests will be carried out on a sample of 150,000 people nationwide to check how many have developed COVID-19 antibodies.
The Government has tendered and elected a company, of which its name is still unknown, to distribute the evidence for free.
The State has also signed an agreement with an Italian company, of which there are also no details, to manufacture 51 machines that will serve to produce between 400,000 and 800,000 masks a day, Arcuri stressed that the ultimate goal is to generate “at least 25 million masks daily”.
In addition, as Spain has already done, Italy will soon set the maximum price at which masks and their tax rate can be sold to avoid market speculation that triggers the price at levels exorbitant by high demand.
