Italy’s firms shake lockdown using shortcut in coronavirus law By Reuters

© Reuters. A worker wears a protective face mask in a factory of roll-forming machine maker Gasparini, in Mirano

By Giselda Vagnoni and Valentina Za

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) – Weeks into Italy’s coronavirus lockdown, thousands of Italian entrepreneurs have been given a bureaucratic shortcut to market.

The government last week extended non-essential business closures to May 3. But more than 100,000 mainly small- and medium-sized companies have applied to keep going or partially reopen.

In principle, a key hurdle for companies to do business should be that they can prove they are part of a supply chain to businesses that are deemed “essential” in a government decree, such as food, energy or pharmaceutical companies.

But the government, facing a backlog of applications, has clarified Italy’s lockdown laws to say no companies need to wait for government approval to go ahead.

More than 105,000 firms have applied to be considered part of…