Italy has extended its emergency
coronavirus measures, which include travel restrictions and a ban on public
gatherings, to the entire country.
On Monday, Prime
Minister Giuseppe Conte ordered people to stay home and seek permission for
essential travel.
He said the measures
were designed to protect the most vulnerable. “There is no more
time,” he said in a TV address.
Italy’s coronavirus
death toll jumped from 366 to 463 on Monday. It is the worst-hit country after
China.
The number of
confirmed infection also increased by 24% from Sunday, official figures showed.
Cases of the virus
have been confirmed in all 20 Italian regions.
Mr Conte said the
best thing was for people to stay at home. “We’re having an important
growth in infection… and of deaths,” he said in an evening address.
“The whole of
Italy will become a protected zone,” he added.
In
an earlier interview with La Repubblica newspaper, Mr Conte said of the
outbreak: “I have been thinking about the old speeches of [Winston]
Churchill – it is our darkest hour, but we will make it”
Mr Conte described
the measures as “I stay home” – with people forbidden to gather in
public. “No more nightlife; we can’t allow this anymore since they are
occasions for contagion,” he said.
All sporting events
– including football matches – are suspended nationwide. Schools and
universities will remain closed until 3 April.
The government said
only those with a valid work or family reason that cannot be postponed will be
allowed to travel.
Passengers departing
on flights will have to justify themselves, as will all those who arrive by
plane.
There are controls
at train stations to check the temperatures of passengers. Cruise ships are
also forbidden to dock at various ports.
Earlier on Monday,
seven inmates died amid riots at prisons across the country after authorities
suspended all visits as part of attempts to control the spread of the disease.
The trouble began in
the northern city of Modena at the Sant’Anna prison.
It is thought that
at least two of the dead lost their lives to drug overdoses after they raided a
prison hospital for the heroin substitute methadone.
At San Vittore
prison in Milan, detainees set fire to a cell block, then climbed onto the roof
through windows and started waving banners, officials said.
At a prison in the
southern city of Foggia, dozens of inmates broke out of the building during
protests. Many were quickly recaptured, Italy’s Ansa news agency reported. Nine
are still missing.
There were also
riots at other prisons in northern Italy and at facilities in Naples and Rome.
The
number of infections worldwide is now more than 111,000, with about 3,890
deaths.
Burkina Faso has confirmed two coronavirus cases – the country’s
first, the health ministry reported. The patients are pf Burkinabe origin and
had returned from France in February, Minister Claudine Lougue told reporters.
The man is 73-years-old and the woman is 57. They tested
positive for the virus on Monday and have been placed in isolation, authorities
say.
A third person who was reportedly in close contact with the
couple has been placed under observation. Burkina Faso becomes the sixth
sub-Saharan African country to report positive tests for coronavirus.
West Africa is the is second most impacted region with
single-digit cases reported in Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. Cameroon is the only
country in Central Africa with two cases whiles in southern Africa only South
Africa has seven cases.
North Africa is the most impacted region with only Libya having
escaped infection so far. Egypt has 55 cases whiles Algeria has 20, Tunisia,
Morocco have 5 and 2 cases respectively.
