Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Friday that he is set to sign an order that will classify several Italian regions that are currently high COVID-19-risk red zones as medium-high-risk orange zones next week thanks to an improvement in the .contagion data This means that the overwhelming majority of Italy's regions will be orange zones.
At the moment just over half of the regions are orange, where coronavirus restrictions are much less stringent than in red zones.
"In a few hours I will sign the orders (for the regions in Italy's tiered system of COVID restrictions) and, on the basis of the figures, a significant part of the orders will take a part of the national territory from red to orange," Speranza told a conference organized by the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
"That means that the measures have produced an initial bending of the (contagion) curve but the situation is still highly complicated, with a significant virus spread rate and intensive care units full".
Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany are set to go from red to orange, sources said.
Campania, Valle D'Aosta and Puglia are likely to remain red, the sources added.
There are doubts about Calabria, which is currently red.
Sardinia, which recently had a spell as Italy's first low-contagion risk white zone, may move from being orange to red.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
