Businesses across Italy are facing financial ruin after new restrictions were put in place this week following a surge in cases of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte introduced the new measures on Monday after cases soared to more than 70,000 in a single day, with 4,126 alone in Lombardy, the epicenter of the first wave.

Bars and restaurants are only allowed to open between 5 p.m. and midnight, with table service only after 6 p.m., and groups limited to six.

In Milan, businesses are also counting the cost of the new restrictions, just months after reopening following a devastating full lockdown in spring.

During mid-afternoon, after serving customers at lunch, Malik Merlex was already closing his cafe. "I have a small place, so theoretically cannot sit many people, so it's problematic," he said. "I prefer to close the shop and go home, to not get fined or other things. But it's not just that, people are now afraid to come in."

The measures also grant mayors the power to close public areas to limit mass gatherings of people. The two regions with the highest number of cases, Campania and Lombardy, where the major cities of Naples and Milan are located, have introduced a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Citizens are only allowed to leave their homes between these hours for work or health reasons.

Usually the Navigli canal is at the center of Milan's night-time economy. Even before the introduction of the curfew, many of the bars were only half full.

Valeria Armanni owns the Ugo cocktail bar, where customer numbers have dropped by 50 percent since reopening after the first lockdown.

When the new regional measures come into force on Thursday, she expects it will be hard to justify staying open.

She said: "The curfew doesn't make any sense for us to stay open because we are a bar that's only open at night. It's not really worth it. I open at 6 p.m. and close at 10 p.m.?

"Yes it's a grave pandemic and we have to control it on one side, but on the other side we can't starve to death."

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