Italy to place several areas, including Milan and Venice, in quarantine

It should be implemented “in the next few hours”. According to several local media, Italy will quarantine all of Lombardy, including the economic capital of the country Milan, as well as the region of Venice, northern Emilia-Romagna and eastern Piedmont to stem the
coronavirus.

Travel to enter and leave these areas will be strictly limited during quarantine, which will remain in force until at least April 3, according to the draft government decree quoted on Saturday evening by the Ansa agency as well as the daily newspapers. La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera. On his site, the latter put online
a map of the areas concerned by quarantine.

Milan has just under 1.4 million inhabitants, and ten million people live in Lombardy, the economic heart of the peninsula. The government decree also provides for around forty for part of Veneto (Venice region) and Emilia-Romagna (Bologna region), in particular the cities of Parma and Rimini, i.e. around 540,000 people, nothing as regards the areas urban.

Minimize travel

Inside the quarantine zone, all schools, museums, sports halls, theaters and cultural centers will remain closed. Bars and restaurants may remain open provided that they maintain a safety distance of at least one meter between customers.

The decree also orders the limitation of internal displacements: it will be “absolutely necessary to avoid any displacement except those motivated by professional obligations or emergency situations”. Stores will also have to respect the safety distance between customers, and will even have to close if they are unable to do so. Access to stores will also be limited to avoid “crowds.”

Access by families and relatives to hospitals, emergency services and reception facilities for the elderly will be “limited only to cases provided for by the health management of these establishments”, which will “be required to adopt the necessary measures to prevent possible infections. “

In the professional context, work meetings should be postponed and telework should be given priority. In the religious field, “all religious ceremonies, including burials, are suspended”. The opening of places of worship will be conditioned on the possibility of avoiding crowds.

Epidemic focus

With 233 dead, Italy, which has a population of 60 million, is in second place behind China for the number of deaths, and in 3rd place behind China and South Korea for the number of cases, almost from 6,000 to date.

The most affected region of the peninsula, “Lombardy (3,420 cases), is facing a tense situation in its hospitals,” recognized the head of Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli earlier today. “We expect to be asked to transfer patients to intensive care units in other regions.” A hypothesis which risks disappearing with the entry into force of the decree.

Rome had already adopted a whole series of draconian measures this week to curb the epidemic, including the closure of schools and universities until mid-March across the peninsula.

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