Italy heads for Christmas lockdown as Covid cases surge

Italians told it is ‘very wrong’ to plan family parties as country records Europe’s highest death toll

Police on patrol in Milan as coronavirus cases surge in Italy. EPA 

Italy is set to announce a strict national lockdown over Christmas to cope with a rapidly accelerating infection rate.

Italians have been told to spend Christmas and New Year at home, with family gatherings up in the air.

The country recorded another 683 coronavirus deaths and 18,236 new cases on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Italy's statistics agency likened the official total death toll of more than 66,000 - Europe's highest - to levels experienced during the Second World War.

Doctors have pressured the government to enact stricter measures to contain the infection rate, with hospital admissions rising by about 1,000 every day, while intensive care occupancy is increasing daily by about 100.

Ministers suggested “red zone” restrictions, which force non-essential shops to close and prevent travel, should be applied across the entire country – effectively a national lockdown. An announcement was due on Friday evening.

"We will all have to spend Christmas at home," Minister for Regional Affairs Francesco Boccia said. "We must make choices to protect the most vulnerable and the elderly, at the cost of bordering on unpopularity.

"It is evident that we are moving towards restrictions during the holiday period, if anyone thinks there will be parties, dinners, gatherings, they are very wrong.”

The restrictions would come on top of measures already brought in for the Christmas holidays, with all overseas arrivals forced to quarantine for two weeks, while travel between Italy’s 20 regions is banned.

Elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland was reportedly considering closing restaurants for a month.

In Lithuania, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said “there is no safe place” as police started setting up roadblocks to enforce a lockdown.

The virus-stricken French leader Emmanuel Macron continued to self-isolate in the presidential retreat in Versailles where he is suffering from a fever, cough and fatigue. He is also facing criticism for hosting dinner parties of more than six people and for shaking the hands of world leaders at an EU summit in Brussels.

Across the English Channel, a UK government scientist suggested the country’s tier system is not working.

"It doesn't look like the tier system is holding the epidemic wave back, unfortunately," John Edmunds said. "I think we are going to have to look at these measures and perhaps tighten them up."

The UK reported another 35,383 new cases and 532 new deaths on Thursday.