Italy now in lockdown as travel restrictions extended

ITALY extended coronavirus travel restrictions previously limited to the country’s north to the whole country yesterday, with soldiers and police enforcing bans.

Some 9,172 people have been infected with Covid-19 in Italy, with 463 deaths, and there is a growing sense that the numbers will only worsen.

“We’re only at the beginning,” said Dr Massimo Galli, head of infectious disease at Sacco Hospital in Milan, where people at the city’s main railway station were required to sign forms certifying the necessity of their travel.

However, the Italian government assured its citizens that supermarkets will remain open and stocked after panic-buying erupted after the broadened anti-virus measures were announced nationwide, sparking overnight runs on 24-hour markets.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s office issued a clarifying statement after he signed the new decree late on Monday, stressing that movement outside homes for “normal necessities” such as grocery shopping will be allowed, as well as for work or health reasons.

The statement said runs on supermarkets were contrary to the intent of the new decree which aims to prevent Italians from congregating.

Meanwhile, China’s president visited the city where the outbreak started as people across the world braced for the possibility of recession.

President Xi Jinping’s trip to Wuhan – his first since the start of the outbreak – came as parts of China return to normal, and was a sign of the diminishing threat the illness presents in the country as it spreads west.

Outbreaks have worsened in France, Spain and Germany, and fear is growing in the United States, where more than 750 people are infected and even some top political leaders were quarantined.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause pneumonia.

The World Health Organisation says people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while severe cases may last three to six weeks.

In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost threequarters of its more than 80,000 patients have recovered.