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Italy Extends Coronavirus Quarantine Restrictions To Entire Country

Italy Extends Coronavirus Quarantine Restrictions To Entire Country

People can only travel for work and family emergencies and all sporting matches have been suspended.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Italy has extended its coronavirus quarantine restrictions to include the whole country, which encompasses around 60 million people.

People in the European country will only be able to travel for work and family emergencies.

All sporting matches and large gatherings have been suspended until further notice, and restaurants and cafes have also been told they must close at dusk.

PA

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the measures were being put in place to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

Mr Conte added: "Restrictions will include banning all public gatherings. There won't be just a red zone. We can't allow this anymore."

Previously, a ban had been placed on people in the north of the country after the Lombardy region and 14 other provinces experienced a particularly bad outbreak.

The region's top health official Giulio Gallera said 10 per cent of the doctors and nurses there can't help those infected as they have tested positive themselves.

PA

The country has the highest death toll from Covid-19 outside of China, with 463 people dead.

The elderly have been the hardest hit age group, with three quarters of the death toll being people aged between 70 and 89; a further 13 per cent belong to people aged over 90 years old. The rest of the death toll are people in their 50s and 60s.

A little more than 9,000 people have been infected across the country and Conte says he's doing everything he can to stop Covid-19 from spreading further.

Meantime, a research lab is paying people to be infected with the virus so scientists can find a vaccine.

PA

According to The Times, willing participants will have to take two weeks off work and will be banned from physical contact with the outside world.

It's believed that up to 24 people at a time will be paid to be infected with a coronavirus - the coronavirus strain currently causing concern is also known as Covid-19.

Hvivo, a company that runs a quarantine unit in an east London lab, is one of more than 20 firms and public sector organisations participating in the global effort to develop a vaccine.

The Daily Star has reported that the volunteers will be infected with two common - but much less serious - strains of the virus that has killed more than 3,800 people (and three in the UK).

The strains, known as 0C43 and 229E, are believed to cause very mild respiratory symptoms. It is hoped that if a vaccine can be developed to combat those milder cases then it could take on the novel coronavirus as well.

It's okay to not panic. LADbible and UNILAD's aim with our campaign, Cutting Through, is to provide our community with facts and stories from the people who are either qualified to comment or have experienced first-hand the situation we're facing. For more information from the World Health Organisation on Coronavirus, click here.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, coronavirus