Italy plans to ease lockdown measures from Monday in six regions, stated the health ministry on Friday, even as the daily death toll across the country continued to be above 400.

New cases decreased by 30% over the previous five days compared with the same period last week.The national health institute (ISS) said that the “R” number came down to 0.92 from 0.98 a week earlier. Italy has a four-tier, color-coded system to gauge the restrictions in place in 20 regions.

A large part of the industrial north, which has been hit hard by the pandemic will be lowered from the highest-tier red, where people can leave their homes for work, health issues or emergencies, to tier-three orange, with restrictions on business and movement slightly less stringent. From Monday, there will be 16 orange regions and 4 red, with no region in the two lower tiers, yellow and white… (Reuters, April 10, 2021)