Rome, May 18 (RHC)-- Italy, once the hardest-hit European nation, is further easing its lockdown measures. Shops, hair salons, restaurants and bars reopened for business today, Monday.  Italy will also allow travelers from within Europe to enter without quarantining beginning in June. 

The Vatican and churches throughout Italy began holding public Masses again under new social distancing guidelines. 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said: “We are facing a calculated risk — in all conscience, I have to admit it very clearly — that the epidemiological curve could go upward.  Our principles and values stay the same — first of all, the protection of life and the citizens’ health.  These are nonnegotiable principles, but we have to face them in a different way in this second phase.  We are facing the risk, and we have to accept it, because, otherwise, we will never get started again.”

Italy announced just over 150 coronavirus deaths Saturday — the lowest number of daily fatalities in over two months.  Meanwhile, arrests were made at anti-lockdown protests in Germany, Britain and Poland over the weekend, as demonstrations against government restrictions mount.  Spain and Israel also saw anti-lockdown protests over the weekend.