Italians are grappling with the most severe peacetime limitations to their everyday lives as their government battles to contain a spiralling novel coronavirus outbreak.
As of Tuesday, all travel within the country was restricted, public gatherings were banned, cinemas, theatres, gyms and museums were shut, and restaurants and bars were told to close by 6 pm (1700 GMT).
“Italy’s future is in our hands. Let us all do our bit, giving up something for the good of the community,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted.
People across the country are only allowed to leave their home for a few reasons, including going to work, grocery shopping, visits to the doctor and care for elderly or sick relatives.
Overnight, panicked shoppers made a run on 24-hour supermarkets, despite the government insisting this is not necessary as people are still allowed to leave their homes to buy food.
But otherwise, the message was to stay inside and avoid socializing.
Italy has the largest number of Covid-19 cases outside of mainland China, with nearly 10,000 infections, including more than 4,000 in hospital, and 463 deaths.
The outbreak has caused serious unrest in prisons, where inmates are concerned about contagion risks and angry at curbs on visits from outside.
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The death toll from the protests has risen to 11, the Justice Ministry said in a statement. Inmates in Rieti and Modena prisons are believed to have died from overdoses after ransacking infirmaries.
In the south-eastern city of Foggia, where dozens of prisoners escaped, 50 have been caught and 22 remain at large, the ministry said, adding that riots were still ongoing in several institutions.
In Melfi, in the southern Basilicata prison, four guards and five medical staff taken hostage by prisoners on Monday “were freed overnight,” according to the ministry.
Even though people are still allowed to go to work and external trade was not suspended, Italy’s economy was expected to take a serious hit from the lockdown.
According to Capital Economics, a research outfit, gross domestic product (GDP) will “contract sharply” in the first two quarters of 2020 and fall by “about 2 per cent” over the full year.
Industry Minister Stefano Patuanelli told Radio Capital that the government would beef up a draft package of anti-crisis measures from 7.5 to around 10 billion euros (8.5 to 11.3 billion dollars).
Italy detected its first local transmission case of coronavirus on February 20 in Codogno, some 60 kilometres south-east of Milan, but authorities believe the virus arrived in the country a month earlier.
The government initially isolated two virus clusters, one around Codogno and another in a small town in Veneto, the region including Venice, but this failed to contain the outbreak.
Hospitals in hard-hit Lombardy, the region around Milan, are seriously concerned about running out of intensive care facilities for critical Covid-19 patients.
Tuesday’s nationwide travel restrictions, valid until April 3, are an extension of measures introduced at the weekend for large parts of northern Italy, including Milan and Venice.
Schools and universities have also been closed until April 3. Rail, bus and motorway traffic is still allowed, but several airlines and countries have stopped connections in and out of Italy.
DPA