Italy’s prime minister last night made an impassioned plea for his citizens to obey a drastic new lockdown in which 16million people have been quarantined to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Giuseppe Conte declared that ‘this is the time to be responsible’ as he called on people to ‘protect the health of our loved ones’ after the quarantine took effect in cities including Milan and Venice.
‘We want to protect the health of all citizens, we are aware that this will create unease and that these measures will be a sacrifice, big and small,’ Conte said in an address last night.
‘But this is the time to be responsible. We all must respect and not dodge these measures.
‘We should not counter these measures or dodge them, we must think about protecting our health, the health of our beloved ones, the health of our parents, but mainly the health of our grandparents,’ he said, warning that older people have proved the most vulnerable to the virus.
Italian police were today setting up checkpoints in Lombardy after the wealthy northern region and 14 other provinces were placed into lockdown in a measure which will last until at least April 3.
Only people with a ‘serious’ reason that cannot be postponed, such as urgent work or family issues, will be allowed in or out of the ‘orange zones’.
Anyone who breaks the rules without justification could face three months in prison or a 200-euro fine in a draconian new effort to tackle the crisis.
The crisis deepened even further yesterday as Italy’s death toll soared from 133 to 366, becoming the highest in the world outside China.
The number of confirmed cases in the country also surged by 1,492 to 7,375, making the scale of the Italian outbreak worse than South Korea’s.
An Italian military police officer checks the documents of a motorist travelling with his dog in San Fiorano, with authorities today imposing checkpoints to enforce a drastic new quarantine
A stop sign and a roadblock stand in the way of motorists on a road in San Fiorano, northern Italy, which is under lockdown
Police check a woman’s belongings by the side of a road in San Fiorano at a checkpoint where a lockdown is being enforced
People wearing protective masks in Milan’s Malpensa airport today – which remained open despite the quarantine
Italian PM Giuseppe Conte declared that ‘this is the time to be responsible’ in an address last night (pictured) as he called on people to ‘protect the health of our loved ones’ after the quarantine took effect in cities including Milan and Venice
Health workers prepare to carry out checks on passengers from Milan at Potenza station in Italy early this morning
Relatives of inmates gather outside the SantAnna prison in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, amid a revolt over new virus measures
A health worker checks the body temperature of a cleaner arriving at the Juventus stadium before the Turin team’s match against Inter Milan yesterday, which was played behind closed doors
Medical officers check passengers on a Flixbus coach in Salerno yesterday after it had travelled through several Italian cities
A map showing the parts of Italy that have been placed under lockdown in drastic new measures to tackle coronavirus
Italian health workers disinfect a building in Rome yesterday as the government put 16million people into quarantine
A map showing the latest number of infections and deaths in the world’s major coronavirus hotspots, including Italy
Manzoni street in Milan is almost empty following the government-imposed quarantine. Vespas line the street where just a handful of people are seen walking
Weddings and funerals have been banned under the tough new health measures while museums, cinemas, shopping centres and restaurants have all been hit by new restrictions.
Bars and restaurants can remain open as long as customers stay three feet apart – but will be shut down if their guests are found to be getting too close to each other.
Schools have already been shut down across the country until March 15, with schools and universities in Lombardy and the ‘orange zone’ areas due to remain closed until at least April 3.
The Pope, who has been ill in recent weeks, held his Sunday blessing by video instead of in person and described feeling like he was ‘in a cage’.
Italian police will be setting up controls at train stations to check people’s temperatures, and stopping all cars on main roads in and out to verify the reason for travel, officials said.
Cruise ships will be forbidden from docking in Venice, with only passengers who are residents of the lagoon city allowed to disembark.
Alitalia suspended national and international flights to and from Milan Malpensa airport, and announced it was operating only domestic routes from Milan Linate.
The borders with Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia remain open.
Speaking to La Repubblica, prime minister Conte also vowed a course of ‘massive shock therapy’ to aid the Italian economy after much of its industrial and business heartland was shut down.
Matching similar calls from France, Conte said strict European Union borrowing limits should be loosened to allow more room for manoeuvre, and that the flexibility envisaged by the EU’s budget rules should be used ‘in full’.
‘Europe cannot think of confronting an extraordinary situation with ordinary measures,’ he said.
The European Commission told Italy on Saturday that its planned extra spending in response to the outbreak would not be counted in measuring its compliance with EU budget rules.
While a quarter of Italy’s population faces life in quarantine, Britons in the coronavirus-ridden zone are free to travel home without restrictions. British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet still have Milan flights available to book on their website.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that British tourists in the northern parts of the country ‘are free to return home or complete their holiday’ under guidelines from the Italian government.
They said UK nationals will not be met by anyone at the airport in Britain, nor will they be put into quarantine or told to take a test for the bug which has so killed more than 3,600 worldwide and has infected more than 100,000.
The FCO updated its advice on Sunday night, advising against all but essential travel to a wider area of northern Italy due to the crisis.
The move has been made following consultations with Italian authorities and the chief medical officer, the department said.
Passengers depart from a train in Naples which arrived from Milan as people scrambled to flee from quarantined regions of northern Italy
The number of confirmed cases in the country increased by 1,492 to 7,375. Pictured: A bar in the centre of Turin, Northern Italy, is virtually empty
Anyone who flouts the quarantine rules – in which no-one can leave the ‘orange zone’ without a serious reason – could face three months in prison or a fine of up to 206 euros (around £178). Pictured: The Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua is nearly deserted
A bar was almost empty in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan amid coronavirus panic as concerned residents and tourists opt to stay inside
The usually-bustling streets in Milan’s city centre were strangely quiet of both traffic and people as coronavirus fears rage on
Mass panic swept in after the Italian government imposed a quarantine affecting 16 million people in the country’s northern region in a bid to combat the spread of deadly coronavirus. Pictured: People queue at bus stations trying to leave Lampugnano
Panicked shoppers queue to buy food in Via Rubattino, Milan, after it was announced that multiple regions of northern Italy would be quarantined
Medical officers checking the travellers of a bus coming from the red zone in Salerno today. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte prolonged the closure of schools until April 3 and closed Lombardy and 14 other provinces of the central north due to the coronavirus epidemic
Medical officers in Salerno checking travellers on a bus coming from the red zone in Italy. Many people have travelled to southern Italy to reach their families of origin before the lockdown was complete, forcing the Italian authorities to intensify the checks at the arrival stations
Vincenzo Tosetti, a 34-year old actor and Venice resident, said that ‘many people I know have fled, mainly from Milan.
‘This is going to test the Italians’ ability to behave responsibly, and I have to say that up until now they’ve been failing. There’s been an exodus’.
Fellow Venetian Giancarlo, 49, who did not want to give his last name, said ‘you can feel the anxiety in the air’.
The floating city was also virtually empty of tourists, which was ‘a big blow’. ‘First the city was hit by record floods [last autumn], now this. Venice is very fragile right now,’ he said.
The virus has now spread to all 22 Italian regions, and the first deaths are being recorded in Italy’s less well medically equipped south.
The head of the Puglia region in southern Italy pleaded with anyone thinking of returning from Lombardy and the other 11 provinces in lockdown – which include the cities of Parma and Rimini – to ‘stop and turn around’.
‘Get off (the train) at the first station, don’t get on the flights to Bari and Brindisi, turn your cars around, get off the bus at the next stop. Don’t bring the epidemic to Puglia,’ he said on Facebook.
‘You are carrying to the lungs of your brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, cousins and parents the virus that has severely strained the health system in northern Italy,’ he said.
While regions of Italy are under an extreme quarantine in which people face a three-month prison sentence for leaving locked-down areas, Britons in the coronavirus-ridden zone are free to travel home without facing penalties. Pictured: Travellers at Linate, Milan’s city airport
The Foreign Office confirmed that British tourists in the northern parts of the country ‘are free to return home or complete their holiday’ under guidelines from the Italian government. Pictured: Linate airport in Milan
A passenger wearing a protective face mask, amid concerns about coronavirus, walks in Linate Airport in Milan
People on buses wear protective face masks as they wait to flee Lampugnano, Milan, after the area was put on lockdown
A doctor can be seen in the pre-triage tent of the Civil Protection in Villa Sofia in a bid to combat the outbreak in Palermo, Italy
Staff check the temperature of a man before he goes into the AC Milan and Genoa CFC game at San Siro, Milan, today
Officials set up temperature checks at the entrance of the Luigi Ferraris stadium for spectators attending the Serie A soccer match between Sampdoria and Verona. Some matches in the Italian league played on despite calls from Italy’s sports minister and players’ association president to suspend the games
Sunday’s AC Milan and Genoa CFC Serie A football match at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was played behind closed doors to limit the spread of deadly coronavirus
Football stars including AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic played in the closed-off match today to combat the spread of deadly coronavirus
A health staff checking the body temperature of a man arriving at the Juventus stadium before the Italian Serie A football match between Juventus and Inter Milan which will be played behind closed doors in Turin today
A man having his temperature screened outside the Allianz Stadium in Turin today as the number of coronavirus cases grows around the world
Empty seats inside the Allianz Stadium before the match between Juventus and Inter Milan is played behind closed doors
Pope Francis delivered his Angelus prayer on a giant screen, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican and voiced his support for the victims
People in face masks walk in St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis delivers his weekly Angelus prayer via video for the first time
The Pope did venture to his window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to wave at the crowds who gathered to watch him deliver his prayer via a live stream
Rows of empty chairs could be seen in front of St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, as the Pope delivers his address on a screen
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree in the early hours of this morning putting a quarter of Italy’s population under lockdown. It comes as leader of Italy’s Democratic party Nicola Zingaretti (right) tested positive for coronavirus marking the first senior politician to catch the bug in the nation
News of the impending quarantine was leaked to Italian media early, prompting further chaos as people rushed to get out of the affected areas.
The leak infuriated Conte, who slammed it as ‘unacceptable’, saying it had created ‘uncertainty, anxiety, (and) confusion’.
Pina Antinucci, a psychoanalyst in her 60s who lives in Milan, told AFP she was suffering nightmares and felt the state was ‘bombarding us with anxieties, spreading paranoia’.
‘I’d like to know if I’m infected… it would be better to know if I have that unwanted guest who occupies our homes, minds and lives,’ she said.
Massimo Galli, the head of a team of doctors from the Biomedical Research Institute in Milan who identified the Italian strain last month, said the leak had been a ‘disastrous communication error’ and ‘absolute idiocracy’.
Italian virologist Roberto Burioni described the leak on Twitter as ‘pure madness’.
‘The draft of a very harsh decree is leaked, sparking panic and prompting people to try and flee the (then) theoretical red zone, carrying the virus with them,’ he said on social media.
An ambulance belonging to the Italian Red Cross’s Corpo Militare – Military Corps – arrived at a hospital in Alzano Lombardo, northern Italy
Tourists wear protective masks as they wander with their luggage on the Piazza del Duomo in central Milan after the quarantine was announced
Airline Alitalia said it was suspending national and international flights to and from Milan’s Malpensa airport from March 9 after the government ordered a lockdown of large areas of northern Italy.
In a statement, the Italian flag carrier said it would operate only national flights from the smaller Milan Linate airport, and reduce the number of flights between Venice and Rome.
International routes will be served from Rome’s Fiumicino airport. The new regime will continue until at least April 3, the airline said.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis broke with centuries of tradition by enlisting the help of technology for his weekly Angelus prayer.
‘I am close through prayer with the people who suffer from the current coronavirus epidemic,’ the 83-year-old pontiff said in a message recorded at the Vatican library and aired live on a screen on Saint Peter’s Square.
The Pope himself tested negative for the contagion after he fell ill on Ash Wednesday with symptoms of a cold including a cough, fever, chills and sore throat.
Elsewhere, inmates in four Italian prisons revolted over new rules introduced to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which include a ban on family visits, a prison officers’ union said.
Prisoners at jails in Naples Poggioreale in the south, Modena in the north, Frosinone in central Italy and at Alexandria in the northwest had all revolted said the union, Osapp.
At Modena, near Bologna, two prison officers were injured and around 20 staff members had to leave the prison after the inmates revolted. The prison was now being guarded by police officers, the Ansa news agency reported.
At Frosinone, south of Rome, police had to be called in to restore order after about a hundred prisoners barricaded themselves into a section of the prison.
Milan’s Via Senato – usually bustling with busy shoppers – was left nearly deserted as coronavirus fears escalate in Italy’s northern regions
One couple were pictured kissing in Milano Centrale railway station in Milan after Prime Minister Conte signed a decree saying the area would be quarantined
Italy has the highest number of cases outside China, the epicentre of the killer bug, overtaking South Korea. Pictured: A man wearing a protective mask passes by the Coliseum in Rome
The Vatican is also unrolling unprecedented health precautions designed to keep the tiny city state’s 450 mostly elderly residents safe. Pictured: A man wearing a mask in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Milan’s iconic Duomo square is virtually deserted after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte put the city – that is in Italy’s Lombardy region – on lockdown
A man wearing a face mask in Milan, where streets have been left virtually empty after the Prime Minister issued a decree for mass lock downs in the north that will continue until April 3
A woman wears a protective face mask at Milan’s Porta Garibaldi railway station today, after it was announced that the area would be under quarantine
Italian football was also plunged into chaos as Serie A match between Parma and SPAL faced a last-minute delay following a call from Italy’s sports minister to suspend the league during the outbreak.
Players faced a 75-minute wait for kick-off inside an empty stadium as officials considered an appeal from sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora minutes before the scheduled start.
Spadafora said he supported a call from Italian soccer players’ association president Damiano Tommasi to avoid putting players at risk amid the virus outbreak.
Some had voiced growing anger over the idea of having to play matches during the coronavirus outbreak.
‘It doesn’t make sense right now, when we’re requesting enormous sacrifices of our citizens in order to stop the spread of contagion, to put at risk the health of the players, referees, coaches and fans,’ Spadafora said.
The Italian league replied that it was following government orders to hold games in empty stadiums.
‘The repeated and contrasting government statements only add to the general state of confusion and definitely don’t help the system overcome the difficult time caused by the virus,’ a league statement said.
Five Serie A matches took place Sunday, beginning with Parma v Spal at lunchtime and concluding with Juventus v Inter Milan in the evening. All of the matches had already been postponed from last weekend.
An appeal by Spadafora for this weekend’s games to be shown on free TV ‘considering the serious inconvenience affecting the population in this difficult time’ was rejected by the league.
‘The minister has gone from asking for the games to be shown for free to suspending the league, amid a decree to play behind closed doors,’ Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini said. ‘Italy needs clarity and gravitas right now, not populist proclamations.’
A man walks past a historical landmark in Milan after the Italian government imposed a virtual lockdown on the north of the country
The Porta Garibaldi city gates – usually popular with tourists – were left deserted after the government imposed a lockdown on the region to take effect next month
The Colosseum in Rome is pictured before and after the deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed the lives of 233 in Italy so far
The Baroque Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy are all but abandoned after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus
Relatives gathering outside and protesting as inmates revolted in the Poggioreale prison in Naples today
Police officers and carabinieri arguing with relatives as inmates protested in the Poggioreale prison in Naples today
Inmates protesting on a wall of the Poggioreale prison in Naples today. In front of the building were dozens of police officers, carabinieri, firemen and relatives of the detainees
Relatives of inmates, wearing protective face masks, gathering outside Poggioreale prison in Naples today
Russian medical experts checking documents of passengers arriving from Italy at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow
A Russian medical expert checking passengers arriving from Italy in the plane at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow today
Russian medical experts preparing to check passengers arriving from Italy at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow. The Russian authorities have ordered mandatory medical checks upon arrival for all those who arrive from countries with high a level of coronavirus cases and ordered them to stay home for two weeks
St Peter’s Square is pictured both before and after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, which has killed most people in Italy, outside of China