News and Commentary

BREAKING: Italy Locks Down Entire Country Over Coronavirus Outbreak

   DailyWire.com
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 25, 2016: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy promotes the First Week of Italian Gastronomy in the World. In the edition of Rio de Janeiro, the chosen location was the terrace of the building of the General Consulate of Italy in Rio Downtown. The place has a privileged view to the Guanabara Bay, Gloria Marina and Sugar Loaf, some of the main sights from Rio de Janeiro. The event featured the traditional gastronomy of Naples and Venice and there was also a show with important personalities from Italy that contributed to the development of art, culture and architecture in Rio de Janeiro in the last century. The event will be held again in the last week of November 2017.
Luiz Souza/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Monday that the government has locked down the entire country in an attempt to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus, which originated in China.

“Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the measures, which come into effect on Tuesday, were necessary to defend the most fragile members of the community,” the BBC reported. “He added that the best thing for the citizens of Italy was to stay at home. Italy’s coronavirus death toll jumped on Monday by 97 to 463. It is the worst-hit country after China.”

Conte said that everyone should stay “at home” and that the country decided that the expanded measures needed to be done “immediately.”

The Wall Street Journal highlighted some of the economic impacts of the expanded quarantine:

The airline Alitalia canceled all service into and out of Malpensa, one of Italy’s busiest airports, which serves Milan and the country’s northwest. Italy’s national carrier is only offering a limited number of domestic flights from Linate, Milan’s smaller airport. On Monday morning, more than two-thirds of flights from Linate had been canceled, although easyJet flights to London and Paris departed.

Sports-car maker Ferrari, which has its headquarters and only factory in the quarantined province of Modena, said it is operating normally. Other manufacturers in the quarantined areas said they were also operating, although they had taken new precautions against the virus, such as keeping workers further apart than normal, and placing bottles of hand sanitizer throughout their factories.

Conte said that the country was committing to a massive spending increase to wipe out the negative impacts that the coronavirus was having on the country.

“We certainly won’t stop here,” Conte said. “We will have to use massive shock therapy.”

This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  BREAKING: Italy Locks Down Entire Country Over Coronavirus Outbreak