Italy halts production of non-essential goods, services amid surging COVID-19 cases

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Sunday ordered the closure of all production activities relating to non-essential goods and services, as a measure to contain the surging toll of coronavirus epidemic in the country that has so far claimed 4,825 lives.

"Today we decided to make one more step. The decision that has been taken by the government is to close on the whole territory of Italy any production activity that is not essential to provide us with goods and services of primary necessity," Conte said, as quoted by Sputnik.

Conte made the announcement after a meeting with trade unions and entrepreneur associations, in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 that killed 793 people in the past 24 hours alone.

Earlier in the day, Angelo Borrelli, the head of the country's Civil Protection Department informed about the steep rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.

"Unfortunately, [the number] of those died increased by 793 over the past 24 hours," Borrelli said at a briefing. He added that 943 more people have recovered, bringing the total number to 6,062.

The number of COVID-19-infected people in Italy has increased by 4,800 over the past 24 hours, surpassing 42,000.

The global number of COVID-19 cases has reached 266,000 with more than 11,000 fatalities, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.