TORONTO -- A Toronto man working in Italy as the nation imposes further restrictions on travel and public gatherings amid the COVID-19 outbreak says the usually vibrant region where he is staying looks like a ‘post-war city.’

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announced on Monday that a new government decree will require people to limit their travel inside the country and that citizens will only be allowed to leave their homes for work.

All public gatherings have also been cancelled and schools will be closed until April 3.

Antonio Sinopoli, who lives in Toronto with his extended family, is a dual Canadian-Italian citizen and often travels to the country for work. He said that while he agrees with the government’s decision to impose further regulations to try and contain the spread of the virus, it is having an impact on the people living there.

“There’s actually worry, there is fear, there is a mix of everything,” Sinopoli told CTV News from his place of residence in Padua, a city in northern Italy. “There’s also sadness because Italians are very social people and now they have been basically quarantined to their own homes.”

“Basically they have asked people just to go to work and straight back home.”

“It’s very quiet. It’s giving me a very bad vibe … a city that is populated, being reduced to a few people and a few cars is not a good sign.”

Sinopoli said that he is going to try and go to work on Tuesday and see if he can get through the city’s checkpoints, where officials have been tasked with determining if citizens have valid reasons for moving around the city.

“I need to justify where and why I’m going into the downtown area,” he said. “I may be stopped.”

More than 9,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the country, and more than 400 have died as a result. Sinopoli believes the government had no choice but to further restrict social gatherings and travel in Italy.

“This is a precaution because the situation with the coronavirus is worsening as we speak and the hospitals are working on full capacity. So we need to control the spread of the disease,” he said. “I’m quite proud of the healthcare system but unfortunately now they have been maxed out.”

Sinopoli had been planning on coming back to Toronto for the Easter weekend in April, and hopes he can get through the “hula hoops” and still make it happen.

With files from the Associated Press