Covid-19 impact: World watches Italy as firms press govt to reopen economy

About 150 Italian academics have published a letter in financial daily Il Sole-24 Ore, owned by the Italian business lobby Confindustria, urging the government to unblock the economy

Many Italian companies and academics are pressing the government to reopen factories to prevent an economic catastrophe, as the world watches how the first Western country to impose a lockdown can extricate itself from the unprecedented measures.

The same debate is being held around the globe: how long can lockdowns against the coronavirus pandemic remain in place before irreversible damage is wrought, with businesses sunk and swathes of the population jobless?

Italy faces one of the most pressing dilemmas, not only because its lockdown has been in place longer than most nations and it has the world's highest death toll, but