The government also ordered cinemas, theaters and museums to close, canceled sporting events and told shops and restaurants to ensure that patrons remained at least a meter apart.locked down much of its northern region in a bid to fight the coronavirus outbreak with its most draconian control measures since World War Two.
Parliament has virtually closed down due to contagion fears, meeting just once a week to prevent a huge backlog of work. “We have two objectives, contain the spread of this virus and strengthen the health system so that it can meet this challenge,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview with the daily La Repubblica. “We’re a strong country.”
It was a similar story in Rome, even though the Italian capital is not under lock down, unlike much of the north. “Health protection is the top priority for everyone,” said the National Olympic Committee , calling on the government to issue a decree to enforce a suspension.“We are encouraged that Italy is taking aggressive measures to contain its epidemic and we hope that those measures prove effective in the coming days,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom told reporters in Geneva.
The Milan bourse, which was down some 17% since the outbreak in northern Italy, lost a further 11% on Monday, underperforming its regional peers.