All major sporting events to be behind closed doors until April as national death toll hits 107

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

The Italian government has ordered the closure of all schools and universities nationwide until 15 March as it grapples to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus, which has claimed 107 lives, an increase of 28 in 24 hours.

On Wednesday evening, it confirmed that all major sporting events, including Serie A football, would be played behind closed doors due to the outbreak until 3 April.

“We are focused on taking all measures for direct containment or delaying the spread of the virus,” the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said as he announced the most stringent containment measures outside Asia. “The health system risks going into overload, and we will have a problem with intensive care if an exponential crisis continues.”

Schools have already been closed in the northern regions worst affected by the outbreak, including Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Friuli Venezia Giulia, as well as parts of Liguria and Marche.

The virus has now spread to all but one of Italy’s 20 regions, with the majority – 1,497 – in Lombardy, followed by Emilia-Romagna (516) and Veneto (345). The country has recorded a total of 3,090 cases since the outbreak began, including 276 people who have recovered.

Among those to have tested positive within the past 24 hours are two councillors from Emilia-Romagna.

The education minister, Lucia Azzolina, told a press conference on Wednesday evening that closing school and universities “wasn’t a simple decision … we waited for the opinion of the scientific-technical committee and we decided to suspend teaching activities from tomorrow till 15 March. It is a decision of impact; I hope the pupils will return to school as soon as possible.”

Azzolina said the government was committed to making sure that “this essential public service may continue to be supplied remotely to all our students”.

The government is reportedly considering further measures, including the closure of cinemas and theatres and the suspension of public events. In the regions worst hit by the emergency, such as Lombardy, theatres and cinemas are already closed and will remain so.

Italians have already received guidance to refrain from the traditional greeting of kissing on the cheek and hugging, to avoid crowded places and keep a distance of one to two metres from others.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Operators of Napoli Servizi sanitise the San Paolo stadium in Naples on Tuesday. Photograph: Ciro Fusco/EPA

People with respiratory problems have been advised to stay at home, as have those over the age of 65.

“We have to work for the country by staying within the rules and adopting lifestyles that halt the classic paths of transmission,” said Silvio Brusaferro, the president of the higher health institute.

Brusaferro said on Tuesday that increasing the number of towns under quarantine was being evaluated. Ten towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto have been under lockdown for almost two weeks.

Codacons, Italy’s main consumer association, said closing schools would have “enormous consequences” for Italian families.

“Those who cannot count on relatives to look after their children will have to take time off work, meaning a drop in productivity across all of Italy and enormous economic repercussions.”

The Italian economy has been badly damaged by the outbreak, with warnings on Wednesday that the tourism sector could suffer €7.4bn (£6.3bn) of losses.

Bars in Venice, usually overflowing with tourists, are offering free drinks to lure customers back, while Milan and Rome have emptied out after thousands cancelled bookings.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest St Mark’s Square, Venice, emptied out by the coronavirus threat. Photograph: Manuel Silvestri/Reuters

Several airlines, including BA, Ryanair and easyJet, have cancelled some flights to Italy because of low demand, while American Airlines has suspended flights to Milan until 24 April. The Netherlands is the latest country to advise against all but essential travel to northern Italy, and Tunisia said on Wednesday it would suspend passenger ferries to the north after one of its citizens tested positive after recently arriving from Italy by sea.

“The situation is dramatic for the whole sector,” said Luca Patanè, the president of the Confturismo-Confcommercio business confederation.

The Italian government is seeking flexibility from Brussels on eurozone budget rules in order to permit a €3.6bn package to help businesses withstand the economic fallout. This follows €900m worth of financial relief measures for 11 towns in Lombardy and Veneto that are still under lockdown. Parliament is hoping to approve the €3.6bn package by Friday.

Italy’s initial handling of the outbreak has come under scrutiny amid speculation that its regionally devolved health system and delays in dealing with initial cases allowed the virus to spread rapidly both within the country and far beyond its borders, with infectious individuals with links to Italy implicated in cases from Mexico to Africa and the UK.

The new decree, however, mirrors tough rules recently introduced in other major centres of the outbreak including South Korea, Iran and Japan which have all introduced measures from shutting schools to the cancellation of Friday prayers, and bans on large gatherings to contain the spread.

The widespread use of quarantine, social distancing and containment strategies is, however, as controversial as it is effective.

A paper by a group of Hong Kong-based researchers for the Lancet at the end of January – which warned of the high risk of a global epidemic emerging – also suggested that tough restrictions similar to those seen in Wuhan might be required elsewhere.

“Substantial, even draconian measures that limit population mobility should be seriously and immediately considered in affected areas, as should strategies to drastically reduce within-population contact rates through cancellation of mass gatherings, school closures, and instituting work-from-home arrangements,” said the scientists, led by Prof Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University.

While such measures have proved to be effective, evidence from the Sars and Mers outbreaks suggested that quarantines can have a negative impact on mental health.

The Italian moves have been echoed in other countries as they have struggled to contain the spread of the virus.

On Wednesday Saudi Arabia suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage over fears of the new coronavirus spreading to Islam’s holiest cities, an unprecedented move that raises fresh uncertainty over the annual Hajj this summer.

The kingdom said the suspension was provisional but, with the umrah attracting millions of people annually, the decision has a huge potential impact. They were also barred from “visits to the Prophet’s mosque in Medina”, according to a foreign ministry tweet.

