MILAN -- Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says travel
restrictions and other strict public health measures will be imposed nationwide
starting Tuesday to try to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Conte said Monday night that a new government decree will
require people throughout the country of 60 million people to demonstrate a
need to work, health conditions or other limited reasons to travel outside the
areas where they live.
The restrictions will take effect on Tuesday and, like
those already in place in northern Italy, will last until April 3., he said.
"There won't be just a red zone,'' Conte told
reporters referring to the quarantine order he signed for a vast swath of
northern Italy with a population of 16 million over the weekend.
"There will be Italy" as a protected area, he
said.
The nationwide decree also extends school closures in Italy
until April 3. Schools in the center and south of Italy that were closed
because of the virus had been slated to reopen on March 16.
Italy registered 1,807 more confirmed cases as of Monday
evening, for a national total of 9,172. With those numbers, Italy again
overtook South Korea as the country with the most cases outside China. The
number of people with the virus who died increased to 463.
The premier also took to task the young people in much of
Italy who have been gathering at night to drink and have a good time during the
public health emergency that started on Feb. 21.
"This night life...we can't allow this anymore,"
Conte said.
Under the weekend decree that applied to regions in the
north, pubs, restaurants and cafes are required to close at dusk. Now the
mandatory early hours will affect all of a locked-down Italy.
On Saturday night, alarmed at rumors over a quarantine in
the north, many Italians fled the targeted regions in the northern "red
zone." was put under lockdown on Sunday. Some 16 million residents live in
that first lockdown, in the north, in populous Lombardy, which includes Milan,
and 14 provinces in the north, including that of Venice.
Tuesday's restrictions also extend closure of schools until
April 3. Until Tuesday, schools in the center and south of Italy were slated to
reopen on March 16.
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