Italy: Police fined nearly 23,000 people in two days for violating lockdown orders

While Italy’s death toll reported its lowest since March 19, the police personnel were alert to ensure strict lockdown guidelines ahead of Easter Sunday. Italian police fined almost 23,000 within two days for violating the COVID-19 measures announced by the authorities.

Interior ministry said that 22,956 people were fined, along with 397 businesses over Friday and Saturday for violating the coronavirus containment rules. From March 11 to April 12, nearly 7 million people and 2,831,550 activities were checked to make sure they were complying with containment measures, said the ministry.

On Easter Sunday, 13,756 people were fined for violating the containment guideline while 213,565 people and 60,435 activities were checked for compliance. The ministry said that the checks are still underway in particular on the road with additional help from helicopters and drones by the Police Forces.

Read: Italy & Spain's Covid Curves Falling; UK & US Plateauing; India Far Behind: WEF's Post

Deaths plateauing

While the coronavirus situation across Europe remains extremely serious, a significant decline in the number of cases in Italy and France has come as a sigh of relief. Italy recorded its lowest daily death toll on Sunday since March 19, with over 431 COVID-19 fatalities, witnessing a dip from the 619 deaths the previous day.

Read: Italy, France Report Fall In Daily Coronavirus Deaths Offering A Glimmer Of Hope

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that the deaths in Italy and Spain are plateauing, but in the UK and US, every day brings more deaths than the last. The WEF shared a graph on Twitter recording the rise in COVID-19 deaths in the countries hardest-hit by the pandemic.

According to the latest report, over 1.8 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide with more than 114,800 deaths, overwhelming the health care facilities across the globe. The United States, Italy, Spain and France are the worst-hit countries due to the pandemic with over 64 per cent of death toll reported from these four countries alone.

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(Image: Twitter / @Viminale)