Lockdowns multiply around globe

Confinement rules harden in the face of a rapidly advancing virus that is severely straining many health systems. Italy reports almost 800 new deaths.

ROME — As Italy’s coronavirus infections ticked above 400 cases and deaths hit the double digits, the leader of the governing Democratic Party posted a picture of himself clinking glasses for “an aperitivo in Milan,” urging people “not to change our habits.”

That was on Feb. 27. Not 10 days later, as the toll hit 5,883 infections and 233 dead, the party boss, Nicola Zingaretti, posted a new video, this time informing Italy that he, too, had the virus.

Italy now has more than 53,000 recorded infections and more than 4,800 dead, and the rate of increase keeps growing, with more than half the cases and fatalities coming in the past week.

On Saturday, officials reported 793 additional deaths, by far the largest singleday increase so far. Italy has surpassed China as the country with the highest death toll, becoming the epicenter of a shifting pandemic.

The government has sent in the army to enforce the lockdown in Lombardy, the northern region at the center of the outbreak, where bodies have piled up in churches.

On Friday night, authorities tightened the nationwide lockdown, closing parks, banning outdoor activities including walking or jogging far from home.

The tragedy of Italy now stands as a warning to its European neighbors and the United States, where the virus is coming with equal velocity. If Italy’s experience shows anything, it is that measures to isolate affected areas and limit the movement of the broader population need to be taken early, put in place with absolute clarity, then strictly enforced. Despite now having some of the toughest measures in the world, Italian authorities fumbled many of those steps early in the contagion — when it most mattered as they sought to preserve basic civil liberties as well as the economy.

Italy’s piecemeal attempts to cut it off — isolating towns first, then regions, then shutting down the country in an intentionally porous lockdown — always lagged behind the virus’ lethal trajectory.

Some officials gave in to magical thinking, reluctant to make painful decisions sooner. All the while, the virus fed on that complacency.

Governments beyond Italy are now in danger of following the same path, repeating familiar mistakes and inviting similar calamity.

Jason Horowitz, Emma Bubola and Elisabetta Povoledo are New York Times writers.

Piero Cruciatti / AFP / Tribune News Service A woman stands next to a relative’s coffin inside the cemetery of Zogno, Italy, as the country reported a oneday record of coronavirus deaths that saw the toll shoot up to more than 4,800.