(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 7 - No Italian region is high-risk for COVID contagion in the latest weekly monitoring of the health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS), for the second straight week.
Italy's colour-coded regional COVID classifications are set to improve on the basis of new figures which showed incidence down despite a slight rise in the Rt number.
Italy will become even more a low-to-moderate yellow zone and no region will be high-risk red as Val d'Aosta turns from red to orange.
Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata, meanwhile, are set to go from orange to yellow.
Italy will probably have only two orange regions, Sicily and Val d'Aosta, while it is still uncertain whether Sardinia will stay orange.
The colour changes come into effect next Monday. Health Minister Roberto Speranza will issue ordinances to this effect later Friday.
"The curve is falling in all regions and autonomous provinces," said ISS chief Silvio Brusaferro. "We are also starting to see a drop in the mortality curve," he added. He said the average age of contagion had dropped to 41, and there were more infections in the 0-9 year range too. Health ministry prevention chief Gianni Rezza said the situation was improving but still the utmost caution was required. He noted that ICU cases were under the critical threshold of 30% for the first time, at 26%. Rezza added that "perhaps COVID will become endemic like influenza".
(ANSA).