There are over five million Italians currently resident abroad and their return home could cause a spike in new Covid-19 coronavirus cases in Italy, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio warned on Wednesday.
"Today there are more than five million people on the Registry of Italians Residents Abroad (AIRE)," Di Maio told lawmakers at parliamentary question time.
"Aiding the return of this number of people to Italy at this stage of a major emergency for Italy could render useless our collective efforts and those of the health system," Di Maio went on.
He was answering a question on whether public funds might be used to contribute to the expenses of citizens resident abroad who want to return to live in Italy, where the current Covid-19 outbreak has peaked.
Italy is one of the countries that has been hardest hit by Covid-19, with the third highest number of deaths (over 30,900) after the United States and Britain and the fifth highest number of cases (more than 221,200), according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
