Virus-hit Italy gets more isolated as nations restrict entry
Marilyn, soup cans, wigs feature in Tate’s Andy Warhol show
ROME — Italians faced travel restrictions at home and abroad Tuesday as other countries isolated Italy with flight bans and sweeping quarantine measures took effect nationwide in a desperate government bid to slow the new coronavirus’ silent spread.
Police at Rome’s main train station checked commuters’ paperwork to ensure they had legitimate reasons to leave their residential neighborhoods for work, health or other “necessary” reasons. Carabinieri teams patrolled cafes to make sure owners were keeping customers 1-meter (yard) apart.
Internationally, Italy’s status as the center of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak continued getting reinforced after the Italian government late Monday extended limits on movement it had imposed in northern Italy to the whole country to slow infections.
Malta and Spain announced a ban on air traffic from Italy.
Malta turned away another cruise ship and some airlines, including British Airways and Air Canada, canceled flights to the whole country. Neighboring Austria and Slovenia barred travelers from Italy from cross
LONDON (AP) — Images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe’s lips are on display in a new Andy Warhol show at London’s Tate Modern — alongside several of the artist’s wigs.
The exhibition includes more than 100 works by the pop-art icon, including Coke bottles, Campbell’s soup cans and celebrities including Dolly Parton, Debbie Harry and Monroe, whose mouth is the focus of the series “Marilyn’s Lips.”
It also features lesser-known works such as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” a series of 1970s paintings of New York drag queens and transgender performers.
Also on display are three of Warhol’s famous silver wigs. He had a collection of more than 100 hairpieces by the time he died in 1987, aged 58, after gallbladder surgery.
Tate Modern said Tuesing their borders without a medical certificate.
Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong and Germany strengthened travel advisories or flat-out urged their citizens to leave Italy.
”Get out of northern Italy if you’re there. We don’t know how long the Italian authorities will keep the window open,” said Erik Broegger Rasmussen, head of consular services for Denmark’s foreign ministry.
The Vatican even erected a new barricade at the edge of St. Peter’s Square.
Italy in recent days emerged as the country with the most coronavirus cases in the world except for China. Authorities reported 10,149 infections as of Monday evening and 631 deaths, 168 more than a day earlier. And officials said they expect many, many more.
The governor of northern Lombardy, the region of Italy hardest-hit by the coronavirus, said Tuesday he would ask the government to tighten measures further after new data showed the contagion continuing to spread.
Atilio Fontana told La7 private television that the mayors of the region’s 12 provincial capitals had agreed to seek measures to close non-essential stores and shut down local public transport. day that the exhibition aims to show a more human side of Warhol, a tireless self-promoter who became one of the 20th century’s best-known artists. It said the show highlights Warhol’s private beliefs and background as a “shy, gay man from a religious, migrant, low-income
“It’s bad. People are terrorized,” said Massimo Leonardo, whose family has run a vegetable stand in Rome’s Campo dei’ Fiori market since 1980.
While some customers were stocking up on blood oranges and artichokes, others called him asking for home deliveries, fearful of going outside.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Europe’s airports say they expect 187 million fewer passengers this year due to the virus household.”
“He is one of the most recognizable names in the late 20th century but, in today’s climate, it feels important to take a more human and more personal look at somebody who is a very familiar artist,” Tate Modern director Frances Morris said. outbreak, which is “turning into a shock of unprecedented proportions for our industry.”
ACI Europe, which represents the sector, estimated Tuesday that the outbreak will mean a 13.5% drop in airport passengers in the first quarter alone. That translates to $1.5 billion in lost revenue. Airports in Italy are most affected.
“What they are now bracing for is a total collapse in air connectivity and the prospect of losing most of their revenues,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe.
He urged the Italian government to provide emergency financial support.
Ordinary Italians, though, appeared to be taking Premier Giuseppe Conte’s draconian new containment measures to heart and where possible, stayed home. The streets of Rome, the Italian capital, were as quiet Tuesday morning as during the country’s annual mid- August vacation shutdown.