The province of Latina, south of the capital, has become the first part of Italy to be put under special measures since Italy began to ease its general lockdown  back in May.

 

Lazio’s regional president Nicola Zingaretti signed a local ordinance ordering a 14-day lockdown for the province after numbers rose sharply again locally, health authorities announced on Thursday evening.

 

“Taking into account the 155% increase in cases recorded since October 4th, the President’s ordinance was signed today which, for two consecutive weeks, starting from the date of publication, orders the following further measures relating to the territory of the Province of Latina,” the Lazio regional Covid-19 crisis unit said in a statement.

 

The measures include:

While Italian media referred to the measures as a “mini lockdown”, there was no mention of a ban on travel to or from the province, or any requirement to fill out a form when leaving the house, as was the case during the height of Italy’s national shutdown.

 

The measures go into force from midnight.

 

 

Latina recorded 359 new cases on Thursday, while there were 144 in the city of Rome.

 

Italy recorded almost 4,500 new cases in total over the past 24 hours.

 

 

While italy’s prime minister said this week he does not “see a new national lockdown on the horizon”, local measures are widely expected to be enforced in various parts of Italy in the coming weeks in response to sharp spikes in cases in many regions.

 

Italian regional authorities can declare “red zones” or enforce local lockdowns under special powers granted due to the country’s state of emergency, which was extended on Wednesday and will now stay in place until January 21st, 2021 – a year since it was first introduced.