'Italy on lockdown: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree which will put most of the country's north under lockdown. The entire Lombardy region is included as well as 14 other provinces. In these areas citizens are only allowed to travel for unavoidable and urgent health issues.'
- CNN,
Millions in northern Italy under lockdown over coronavirus fears, march 8, 2020
'Italy has placed up to 16 million people under quarantine as it battles to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Anyone living in Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces will need special permission to travel. Milan and Venice are both affected.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues across the whole country.
The drastic measures will last until 3 April.
..
It was widely discussed here that the week that's just finished was critical to seeing if Italy's coronavirus response had managed to halt the spread. If the numbers had begun to tail off, it would have suggested the containment measures had worked. They haven't.
With cases still surging, the government has moved to the next stage - and it's a dramatic step up. It's not quite a complete lockdown - planes and trains are still running and access will be permitted for emergency or essential work reasons. But police will be able to stop people and ask why they're trying to enter or leave the areas covered.'
- BBC,
Coronavirus: Northern Italy quarantines 16 million people, March 8, 2020
Context(CNN, Covid-19) - '..This is a time for pulling out all the stops..' - WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus(WARNING!! WARNING!! GLOBAL EMERGENCY!!) - '..we need to plan for chance that “CONTAINMENT OF THIS EPIDEMIC ISN’T POSSIBLE”.' - Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding