Italy puts quarter of population in lockdown
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A QUARTER of the Italian population was in lockdown yesterday as the government took drastic steps to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus sweeping the globe.
Italy’s COVID-19 death count is now 233, more than any other country outside China.
The outbreak has now killed more than 3,500 people and infected over 105,000 across 100 countries and territories.
The unprecedented restrictions, which will impact some 16 million people and stay in force until April 3, were signed into law overnight by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The new measures say people should not enter or leave Lombardy, Italy’s richest region, as well as 14 provinces in four other regions, including the cities of Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, and Rimini.
Conte said nobody would be allowed to move in or out of these areas, or within them, unless they had proven, work-related reasons for doing so, or health issues.
“We are facing a national emergency,” Conte told reporters in the middle of the night. “We have to limit the spread of the virus and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed.”
Streets in northern cities, including Milan, were quieter than normal yesterday morning. However, it was not immediately clear how stringently the order would be policed, with people caught away from home when the measures came into force allowed to return.
By early yesterday the measures had still not appeared in the Official Gazette, where legislation must be published to formally take effect.
Milan airport authorities said services were so far operating normally, pending official notification of the new measures, while trains were running across the north. The borders with Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia remain open.
According to the decree, all museums, gyms, ski resorts and swimming pools will be shut in the targeted zones.
Leave was canceled for health workers as Italy’s hospitals sag under the virus pressure.
Restaurants and bars will be allowed to open from 6am to 6pm and only if they can guarantee that customers are at least 1 meter apart.
‘Bold, courageous steps’
Church services yesterday were also canceled in the region, while the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would make his weekly Sunday blessing via a video linkup rather than directly from St Peter’s Square to limit the risk of contagion.
The World Health Organization praised Italy for its “bold, courageous steps,” according to a tweet by its boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO described global virus cases passing the 100,000-mark as a “somber moment.”
Bulgaria reported its first case yesterday, following Colombia, Costa Rica, Malta and the Maldives earlier in the weekend.
South Korea — which has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside China with 7,313 — added 272 new cases yesterday, far below daily increases of around 500 recently. Two more people died, bringing the death toll to 50.
Another hotspot, Iran, reported 49 new deaths yesterday, its highest toll for a single 24-hour period. This brings the number of those killed by the virus in the country since mid-February to 194. The virus has spread to all of Iran’s 31 provinces with 6,566 confirmed cases.
In the United States, the contagion has spread to 30 states, killing at least 19 people, with New York announcing a state of emergency.
Passengers on the US cruise ship Grand Princess, in which 21 of the 3,533 on board tested positive for the disease, will remain confined to their cabins in waters off San Francisco until today when it has been allowed to dock in Oakland.
Twenty Chinese nationals are on the ship, China’s diplomatic mission said on Saturday.
They include 11 crew members and nine passengers, and the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco has been keeping contact with the Chinese employees, who “remain healthy and in stable condition.”
Meanwhile, another cruise ship, the Costa Fortuna, was turned away by Malaysia and Thailand due to virus fears, an official said yesterday. The boat is carrying around 2,000 people, including dozens of Italians.
Egyptian crew and foreign passengers on a Nile cruise ship on which 45 suspected novel coronavirus cases had been detected disembarked yesterday in the southern city of Luxor. The 45 would be quarantined.
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