Italy extends its quarantine to the entire country; PM asks residents to stay at home

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Monday he will sign a decree that extends the lockdown of the Lombardy region to the entire country as Italy’s COVID-19 death toll continues to rise.

People throughout the country should not leave their homes other than for work and emergencies, Conte said. He added that all public gatherings will be banned and sporting events suspended. The decision was made to protect the most vulnerable people in the country, he said, and the measures will take effect Tuesday.

“Stay at home,” Conte told reporters.

Schools and universities all over the country will remain closed until April 3, he said, but public transit will remain operational. All schools in the country were previously closed until March 15.

Italian officials previously announced a lockdown of the Lombardy region, which is the hardest-hit part of the country by COVID-19. The drastic expansion of the measures to encompass the entire country come after nationwide COVID-19 deaths jumped by 97 to 463.

Italy is the hardest-hit country in Europe by the virus, with a total of at least 9,172 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of Monday, it is the country outside of China with the most cases in the world.

While the spread of the virus is slowing in China, where it originated in December, it’s picking up pace across other parts of the world, including Italy. World Health Organization officials said Monday that it’s reassuring that the virus appears to have been controlled in China and other countries such as Singapore. However, the virus is now present in more than 100 countries around the world and global cases have surpassed 100,000.

“It is in our hands. … In many countries, it will get worse before it gets better,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead of WHO’s emergencies program. Roughly 93% of the global cases are concentrated in four countries: China, Korea, Italy and Iran, WHO officials said. “Absolutely, we see a light at the end of the tunnel, but how quickly we get there depends on what countries do.”