⁍ COVID-19 cases across Italy have risen seven-fold since the start of the month.

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⁍ The number of deaths is also climbing, albeit at a slower rate and less constantly.

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⁍ Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says he wants to avoid the sort of nationwide lockdown introduced when the disease first flared.

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– “We need to make one last effort to get things under control,” Vincenzo De Luca says. “We need to shut everything down for a month, for 40 days.” De Luca is the head of Italy’s Campania region, which includes Naples, and he announced on Friday that the region would impose a lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, which has killed 91 people in Italy and infected 19,143 since the start of the month, Reuters reports. “Current data on the contagion make any kind of partial measure ineffective. It is necessary to close everything, except for those businesses that produce and transport essential goods,” De Luca said on Facebook. “We need to shut everything down for a month, for 40 days.” He didn’t say when the lockdown would begin, and it’s not clear how long it would last. The region is the second worst-hit in Italy, with 4,916 cases as of Friday.