Sun | Apr 5, 2026

Italy quarantines north in drastic bid to slow virus spread

Published:Sunday | March 8, 2020 | 12:00 AM(AP) -
Women wearing face masks disinfect their hands in central Piazza Venezia, Rome. Italy has announced a sweeping quarantine for its northern regions, igniting travel chaos, as it restricted the movement of a quarter of its population in a bid to halt the new coronavirus' relentless spread across Europe (AP).

ROME (AP) — Italy has taken a page from China’s playbook, locking down around 16 million people — more than a quarter of its population — for nearly a month to halt the relentless march of the new coronavirus across Europe.

The extraordinary measures will remain in place until April 3.

After Italy saw its biggest one-day jump in infections, Italian Premier, Giuseppe Conte signed a quarantine decree overnight for the country’s prosperous north. Areas under lock down include Milan, Italy’s financial hub and the main city in Lombardy and Venice, the main city in the neighbouring Veneto region.

“There will be a ban for everybody to move in and out of these territories and also within the same territory,” Conte said. “Exceptions will be allowed only for proven professional needs, exceptional cases and health issues.”

The fate of foreign visitors stuck in Italy’s new quarantine zones is still unclear.

Weddings, museums, shopping malls, and even restaurants are all hit by the new restrictions, which focus on a swath of northern Italy, but are disrupting daily life around the country.

Confusion reigned as residents and tourists tried to figure out when and how the new measures were coming into effect. Travellers crammed aboard standing-room only trains, tucking their faces into scarves and sharing sanitising gel.

The pope, who has been ill, held his Sunday blessing by video instead of in person, even though he wasn’t directly affected by the lock down. He described feeling like he was “in a cage.”

It’s a feeling familiar in China, where the government locked down about 60 million people in central Hubei province in late January. Six weeks later, they’re still effectively stuck.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said China’s move helped the rest of the world prepare for the virus to arrive, and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted his support Sunday for Italians and their “bold, courageous steps aimed at slowing the speed of the coronavirus.”

Around the globe, more and more events were cancelled or hidden behind closed doors, from the pope’s Sunday service, to a Formula One car race in Bahrain and a sumo competition in Japan. Cruise ships navigated troubled times from California to Egypt.

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