Should Italy be relaxing its lockdown?

The Italian Deputy Minister of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, on whether Italy should be beginning to open up with daily death toll from the coronavirus still in triple figures. Bars and restaurants will be allowed to reopen for business on 4 May but may only service takeaway orders, as part of an easing of restrictions on the nationwide lockdown.

Also in the programme: the Russian doctor arrested for trying to distribute protective equipment to medics; and the American author Lawrence Wright on his new novel, an eerily prescient tale about a flu-like pandemic.

(Photo: An employee at the El Birocc bar wearing a protective face mask and holding paper cups and plastic food containers in Milan, Italy on 2 May 2020. Credit: Paolo Salmoirago/EPA)