ITALIAN Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, has announced that the country has gone into full quarantine, including restricting of travel, in an unprecedented move to stop further spread of coronavirus disease in the country.
Conte announced in a live video monitored on his official Facebook page that the quarantine measures put in place for the Northern regions affected by the coronavirus outbreak would be extended to the whole country.
Since the outbreak of the virus, several reports had it that Italy has confirmed 9,172 cases of COVID-19, with 463 deaths from the virus at the time of Monday evening.
Italy has been the most affected country by the virus outside of mainland China, origin of the outbreak.
The Prime Minister explained that the measures will restrict movement of Italians to emergency travel only for work or family emergencies, with public gatherings to be banned completely from Tuesday.
All sporting events in the country, including football matches within Serie A, have been suspended, Conte added.
He said the measures, which come into effect on Tuesday, were necessary to defend the most fragile members of the community.
The Prime Minister added that the best thing for the citizens of Italy was to “stay at home”.
Hans Kluge, Regional Director for Europe at the World Health Organisation, said: “Italy has taken a brave decision to contain and mitigate the risk of COVID-19 for its population. WHO fully supports the commitment of the government at state & regions, the people of Italy, all doctors, nurses & health staff at the frontline. United with Italy.”
It will be recalled that earlier on Monday, WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic as the virus crossed 100,000 reported cases in over 100 countries over the weekend.
Abeeb Alawiye formerly works with The ICIR as a Reporter/Social Media officer. Now work as a Senior Journalist with BBC News Yoruba. You can shoot him an email via [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @habsonfloww