Italy expected to close all schools and universities by mid-March

The Italian government is expected to close all schools and universities from Thursday and until mid-March due to the Covid-19 epidemic, several Italian news agencies announced. However, the decision has not yet been made and awaits a final decision.

The Italian Government will make “in the next few hours” a final decision on the closure of all schools and universities in the country, the Minister of Education announced after several agencies reported that the decision was made.

“No decision has yet been taken on the closure of schools, we requested more detailed information from the technical-scientific committee, the decision will be taken in the next few hours,” said the minister, Lucia Azzolina, who withdrew from the board of directors for a moment. ministers.

“We will see if this decision [de encerramento das escolas] it is proportional to the epidemiological panorama we are experiencing, “said Azzolina. Several Italian agencies, cited by the Associated Press and France-Presse, had reported that all schools and universities would close from Thursday to mid-March.

However, the issue was addressed during a council of ministers meeting in Rome chaired by the head of government, Giuseppe Conte, but the decision has not yet been taken and could be made official by decree this Wednesday.

The Covid-19 outbreak, detected in December in China, and which can cause respiratory infections such as pneumonia, caused about 3200 deaths and infected more than 93,000 people in 78 countries, including five in Portugal.

Of the infected people, about 50,000 recovered.

In addition to 2983 deaths in China, there are fatalities in Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand, the United States, the Philippines and Iraq.

A Portuguese crew member of a cruise ship is hospitalized in Japan with confirmation of infection.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) confirmed five cases of infection, four of which in Porto and one in Lisbon.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak as an international public health emergency and increased the risk to “very high”.

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