ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2020) Italy's Council of Ministers adopted a new package of measures to support the economy and the population affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the decree approved at a government meeting is worth 55 billion Euros ($59.5 billion), Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at a press conference.
Out of the sum, 25.6 billion euros will be allocated to support workers to finance benefits for forced downtime and bonuses for the self-employed.
"Support measures for companies amount to about 15-16 billion, which will be provided in various forms: for smaller ones we will make non-refundable compensations... We also reduced 4 billion taxes for all enterprises with a turnover of up to 250 million," Conte said.
According to the latest official data, as of Wednesday, the overall number of COVID-19 cases in Italy surpassed 222,000, with 31,106 deaths and more than 112,000 recoveries.
On Wednesday, the number of those who recovered for the first time amounted to half of the total case count.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.
According to the WHO, the global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 287,000 people, with the number of cases worldwide exceeding 4,170,000.
In line with Johns Hopkins University's data, the global case tally tops 4,343,000, with over 296,000 deaths and more than 1,547,000 recoveries.
