To limit the spread of the coronavirus, the Italian government requests to “avoid displacement” on the national territory and orders a “ban on assembly”.
Some 60 million Italians are asked to stay at home as of Tuesday 10th March 2020, in accordance with a decree issued by the government of Rome, unprecedented in the world.
Objective: to fight against the coronavirus, the progression of which, close to the pandemic according to the WHO , has already killed more than 4,000 people.
“Tutti a casa” (all at home), “all firm”: Italian press headlines thus summarize on Tuesday the new decree signed by the head of the government Giuseppe Conte, which extends to all Italy the drastic measures bordering since Sunday a quarter of the population in the north of the country.
Buongiorno! Ecco la prima pagina di oggi, 10 marzo 2020 📰
Gli aggiornamenti su https://t.co/85UEUCjeLC pic.twitter.com/D7LBCFuTMo
— La Stampa (@LaStampa) March 10, 2020
“I am going to sign a decree which can be summarized as follows:” I am staying at home “. There will no longer be a ” red zone on the peninsula” (…) The whole of Italy will become a protected zone “, he asserted in a serious tone during a press point at the seat of government in Rome .
All Italians will have to “avoid travelling” except to go to work, to get supplies or for medical care. Gatherings are also prohibited.
Razzia in Italian supermarkets
Italy, a member of the G7, thus becomes the first country on the planet to generalize such draconian measures to try to halt the progression of the coronavirus, which has already killed 463 people and more than 9000 cases in the peninsula.
As of Monday evening, in Rome or Naples, supermarkets were taken by storm by frightened Italians, by the consequences of this new decree, unprecedented in Europe and in the world.
China has also confined more than 50 million people to their homes in the province from which the epidemic started, but no country has taken such measures nationwide.
It crossed the milestone of 4000 dead Tuesday, with 17 new deaths in China, according to a global count established by AFP.
Read also: Coronavirus: 25 dead, 1412 cases… Update on the situation in France
The threat of a “very real” pandemic
If the World Health Organization estimated that China (more than 80,700 cases) was “in the process of controlling the epidemic”, it also warned on Monday that “the threat of a pandemic ” on the scale of the planet had “become very real”, however judging that it could “be controlled”.
The number of cases now exceeds 113,000 in 101 countries and territories, according to a report established Monday at 5:00 p.m. GMT by AFP. Germany has announced its first two deaths, Canada its first.
New infections on Monday (4,233 worldwide) are also linked to the spread of the disease in Iran, where nearly 600 additional virus carriers have been registered.
The entire European Union is now affected, with the announcement on Monday of the first two cases in Cyprus.
Minister affected
La France, the fifth country most affected with more than 1,400 cases and since Monday the Minister of Culture Franck Riester , 25 dead Sunday banned gatherings of more than 1000 people. Romania has done the same, and in Slovenia, the ceiling is 100 people.
Ireland for its part cancelled the parades planned in Dublin and Cork for St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.
The toll has also increased in the United States, which has more than 500 cases of contamination. Several states, out of the thirty affected, have declared a state of emergency to release federal resources.
Health officials in the country urged those most likely to fall seriously ill, including the elderly, on Monday to stock up on supplies and medicine to prepare to stay at home. Boston also cancelled its St. Patrick’s Day parade.
