Italy will reopen its move theaters next month as it begins to “accept” the risks that come with easing lockdown restrictions, the government announced.
The country will allow cinemas to return to business June 15 with social distancing measures such as staggered seating and online reservations, Deadline reported.
“We are facing a calculated risk with the awareness that the contagion curve could rise again,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Saturday.
He said Italy could “not afford” to wait until a vaccine was developed to restart the economy.
“We are taking this risk and we have to accept it, otherwise we could not restart,” Conte said.
The country became one of the first outside of China to implement strict lockdown measures in early March when it emerged as the initial epicenter in Europe of the coronavirus pandemic.
Italy has seen more than 224,000 cases of the infectious bug, resulting in at least 31,000 deaths, according to the latest figures from John Hopkins University.
