Coronavirus: Italy deaths jump to 463, with 300 in just one region
Southern Italians living in the north have been told to to "turn your cars around" and not return home to escape the lockdown.
Tuesday 10 March 2020 10:48, UK
The number of people to have died from coronavirus in Italy has jumped by almost 100 - to a total of 463.
More than 300 of the fatalities are in Lombardy - one of five regions in the north and centre of the country which are under lockdown, effectively putting 16 million people, a quarter of the population, in quarantine.
According to officials, the amount of cases confirmed to be COVID-19 in Italy - the nation worst-hit by the virus in Europe - now stands at 9,172.
Confirmation of the figures comes after the country shut all of its ski resorts and Italy's prime minister said he will use "massive shock therapy" to battle the outbreak.
Italy's top sports body, National Olympic Committee, has called for all sports events to be suspended until 3 April, and asked the government to issue a decree to enforce the measure.
Three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in have been confirmed in Ireland, including a healthcare worker.
Two case are in the south and one in the west - all had close contact with a confirmed case.
There are now 24 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
Earlier, a worker at Disneyland Paris tested positive for the virus. A spokesman said the maintenance person had not come into contact with visitors and other staff were being checked. The park remains open.
Prime minister Giuseppe Conte has said he will significantly increase spending on coronavirus measures as a form of "massive shock therapy" to try to slow the disease.
"We will not stop here. We will use a massive shock therapy. To come out of this emergency we will use all human and economic resources," Mr Conte told newspaper la Repubblica.
He also said he would decide in the coming days whether to further extend the closure of schools - and confirmed he had tested negative for the virus.
Italy's economy minister last week pledged 7.5 billion euros (£6.6bn) in measures to help the economy deal with Europe's largest outbreak.
Despite the lockdown, dozens of flights reportedly landed in the UK from the affected areas on Sunday.
Seventeen came from Milan Malpensa airport alone, according to the Daily Telegraph, which said passengers were not tested or quarantined.
It comes as easyJet said it expected to reduce some flights to Milan, Venice and Verona until 3 April, with British Airways "reviewing our schedule" and offering passengers the chance to change their booking.
Worldwide repercussions continue to bite, with global stock markets crashing amid uncertainty over the virus.
In other coronavirus developments:
- Mainland China, outside Hubei, reports no new locally transmitted cases for a second day
- Saudi Arabia suspends schools and universities
- Formula One's Bahrain Grand Prix to go ahead without spectators
- Six Nations match between France and Ireland postponed
- The US state of Oregon declares emergency as cases double to 14
- France reports three new deaths, bringing total to 19 as cases rise to 1,209
- Gatherings of more than 1,000 people also been banned in France
- The UK Foreign Office "working intensively" to arrange a flight for Britons on cruise ship off California
The UK's Foreign Office has warned against "all but essential travel" to regions in northern Italy - including Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Piemonte and Veneto.
Southern Italians living in the north have also been told to to "turn your cars around" and not return home.
There are worries people could return to their family homes to sit out the four-week shutdown, which forbids anyone from leaving or entering new "red zones" except for in exceptional circumstances.
About two million people left underdeveloped parts of the south in the past 15 years in search of work and hundreds of thousands of them now live in the north.
The governor of Puglia - the heel of Italy's boot - told people to stay where they were in an impassioned plea on Facebook.
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"I speak to you as if you were my children, my brothers, my nephews and nieces: stop and go back," wrote Michele Emiliano.
"Get off at the first train station, do not catch planes... turn your cars around, get off your buses. Do not bring the Lombard, Veneto and Emilia epidemic to Puglia."
Most of Italy's confirmed cases, as well as the deaths, were diagnosed in northern regions.
In the south, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Molise have seen just dozens of cases between them and a handful of deaths.
In a bid to deter a mass influx, southern regions issued decrees on Sunday telling people who do arrive from northern red zones that they had to go into quarantine for two weeks.
The president of Calabria Jole Santelli said: "The government must block an exodus to Calabria, which risks triggering a disastrous bomb.
"Calabria is not in a position to manage a serious health emergency.... Returning from the north in an uncontrolled manner endangers our land and our loved ones. Don't do it. Stop."
The government appears to have given people a day before formally enacting the lockdown, with hundreds of people seen trying to catch trains out of Milan on Sunday, and airports and roads all still open.
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