Leading Italian physician Andrea Crisanti said Tuesday that, rather than easing the current COVID-19 restrictions, the government may have to make them tougher, saying the second wave of the coronavirus has already claimed 9,000 lives in Italy.
"Next week we'll know if the (contagion) curve has stabilized or has started to come down," said Crisanti, the director of microbiology and virology at the University of Padua.
"If it does not come down, it will be necessary to do something else.
"The social and emotional price is immense - 9,000 people have died since the start of the second wave, we must not forget that".
Crisanti also blasted the notion of easing COVID restrictions for Christmas.
"Reopening everything at Christmas and repeating the mess made in Sardinia in the summer (with the reopening of night clubs) and having to start over again would be morally unacceptable," he said.
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