Sinner leads Italy to Davis Cup semifinals; Australia edges past USA
Defending champions Italy advanced to the Davis Cup semifinals on Thursday after defeating Argentina 2-1, with world No 1 Jannik Sinner winning the singles and doubles match.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday announced that the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic which was due to end on April 3, has now been extended until April 13.
The announcement came just two days before the current lockdown, which started on March 10, was due to end, according to the media report.
Italy currently accounts for the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the world at 13,155, while the overall confirmed cases tally stood at 110,574.
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In a televised address, Conte said, “We have surpassed 13,000 deaths, and this is a wound that pains us especially — it is a wound that will never heal”.
“So we are not in a condition to relax our restrictive measures yet… and this is why I just signed a new decree that extends the current measures to April 13,” he further added.
“When the (scientific) data consolidate… we will begin to program a gradual loosening of the restrictions”, he said.
“I cannot tell you when that will be,” Conte admitted.
“After that we will be in Phase Three, which is when the emergency will be over, and we will resume our working and social lives,” Conte said.
“Phase Three is the phase of reconstruction and the relaunch of our social and economic lives” the president added.
The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic infected 905,279 people worldwide and increased the death toll to 45,371 on Wednesday even as the head of the United Nations has described this crisis as humanity’s worst since World War II.
Last week, travel was restricted across Italy and public gatherings were forbidden throughout the country, as the government placed the whole peninsula on lockdown to fight the spread of the new coronavirus.
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