Italy locks down millions as coronavirus cases surge

Italy imposed an unprecedented peacetime lockdown on Sunday that will affect 16 million people across much of the country’s north, as officials reported a more than 50 percent surge in confirmed cases from a day earlier. Here are the latest updates on the virus and a map of where it has spread.

Italy now has 7,375 confirmed cases, and 366 people have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. The government’s move is a sign that restrictive clampdowns — which clash with core values of Western democracies — might be necessary to contain and defeat the epidemic.

“We are the new Wuhan,” one Milan resident told our reporter, referring to the Chinese city where the virus was first discovered, and which was later cordoned off by the authorities.

But debate has already erupted over how well the Italian government will be able to enforce the new rules — and whether Italians will obey them.