国际英语资讯:Italy shifts attention to post-COVID-19 health, economic priorities_时事

国际英语资讯:Italy shifts attention to post-COVID-19 health, economic priorities

Sunday marked the second day of a nine-day high-level talks organized by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte aimed at developing a strategy for stimulating economic growth in Italy as it emerges from weeks of coronavirus lockdown.

After a series of opening statements Saturday, the talks took place behind closed "virtual" doors -- many participants attended via video call.

The widespread use of face masks helped Italy avoid 78,000 additional infections, according to a study released over the weekend by renowned Mexican chemist Mario Molina, co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Sunday's data showed that Italy has recorded nearly 237,000 cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak started, which, according to Molina's estimates, means that it would have had more than 300,000 cases if face masks had not been so widely used up to this point.

In Lazio, the region that includes Rome, Regional President Nicola Zingaretti -- who was among the first high-profile figures in Italy who announced in March his infection with COVID-19 -- announced a series of measures aimed at restarting economic growth in the region, including trade fairs and corporate conferences. But Zingaretti also said he would delay the reopening of bingo halls and betting facilities, at least until next month.

The Emergency COVID-19 Center at the Campus Bio-medical University of Rome was shuttered as of Sunday. Hospital officials said that while new coronavirus infections are still being recorded, the outbreak appears to be "under control" in Lazio and that the biomedical center is no longer needed.