In the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, Italy will shut down all companies and factories that are not essential until at least 3 April. Only companies that make a vital contribution to national production may remain open, Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte announced on Saturday.
Most stores in Italy were already closed, but supermarkets, drugstores, pharmacies, post offices and banks remain open. The supply chains that supply these companies with goods also remain operational.
It is expected that the government will issue a decree on Sunday to make these measures concrete. “This is the worst crisis in this country’s post-war period,” said Conte in a Facebook post on Saturday. “We slow down our production engine, but we don’t stop it.”
Biggest increase in death toll since outbreak
In Italy, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 793 on Saturday, the largest increase since the virus outbreak. This brings the death toll in Italy to 4,825 people who died. The majority, 3,095 people, come from the Lombardy region.
On Saturday, another 6,557 people were tested positive for the coronavirus, resulting in a total of 53,578 people officially infected in Italy. 25,515 of them live in the Lombardy region. 2,857 people are in intensive care.
Follow the latest developments around the virus in us live blog.
The coronavirus in short
- The coronavirus mainly spreads through sneezing and cough drops. The virus can be transmitted directly from person to person or (for a limited time) through surfaces such as door handles.
- An infected person infects two to three others on average. Precautions are necessary to contain this.
- The vast majority of patients have mild (flu-like) complaints.
- Nearly all deaths involve the elderly or other frail, such as heart, lung or diabetes patients. If everyone complies with the measures, this reduces their risks.
- Read here what precautions you should take.
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:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/bbbaa4ec-6bb4-11ea-98a8-0218eaf05005.jpg "Stranded Indians fly to New Delhi with KLM on Sunday | Inland")