Lockdown again in Italy amid rising corona cases

"It is only with widespread vaccinations that we will be able to do without restrictions like the ones we have had to adopt". Schools, stores and restaurants will close in most of the country from March 15 on the back of new restrictions approved by Draghi's cabinet earlier on Friday. He said that a complete lockdown would be started across the country for 3 days on Easter from 3-5 April.

He added: "The memory of what happened last spring is vivid, and we will do everything to prevent it from happening again".

In regions demarcated as "red zones" people will be unable to leave their houses except for work or health reasons, with all non-essential shops closed.

As of Saturday, Italy has registered 3,175,807 Covid-19 cases, with 101,564 fatalities.

Italy saw new cases rise by almost 15 percent this week compared to the week before.

The coronavirus restrictions will be in place until April 6.

Media reports had suggested Italy's more populated northern regions such as Lombardy, which includes Milan, would be among those going into the red, as would Lazio, which includes Rome.

The Italian Prime Minister emphasized that over the past week there had been an increase of nearly 5,000 new COVID-19 patients in hospitals and 600 in intensive care units.

When Italy's second wave of the epidemic was accelerating quickly in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.

The prime minister also referred to the country's vaccination campaign.

Draghi has made stepping up the pace of vaccines one of the priorities of his new national unity government, which took over last month when the previous centre-left coalition imploded.

Italy's medicines agency blocked the use of one batch of AstraZeneca vaccines, after "several grave adverse events" were reported, Mr Draghi said, describing it as a "precautional decision" in line with other European nations.