Italy's health minister made statement about Covid-19 lockdown.

Italian health minister Roberto Sperenza said that the government is working towards extending the country's "containment measures until at least Easter", reports Italian news agency ANSA.

“The government will move in this direction,” said Speranza, following a meeting of a scientific advisory committee on 30 March.

No date for the end of the lockdown was issued by the health ministry which stated that it would be decreed by the government.

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Easter Sunday falls on 12 April this year. A recent report in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera suggested that the lockdown would be in place until 18 April.

Italy has been under lockdown for three weeks and many Italians don't believe the quarantine measures will end any time soon.

The statement by Speranza comes as Italy witnesses a decline in new Coronavirus cases in recent days.