ROME • Italy's southern regions warned hundreds of thousands of its people who migrated to work in the north of the country not to return home, amid fears they will flee a massive no-go zone set up to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus.

The unprecedented lockdown was announced by the government yesterday and will affect some 16 million inhabitants in the wealthy region of Lombardy, centred on the financial capital Milan, and 14 provinces also in the north.

With a four-week shutdown looming, many of them are expected to try to return to their old family homes to sit out the contagion.

The governor of Puglia made an impassioned plea on Facebook for them to remain in the north. "I speak to you as if you were my children, my brothers, my nephews and nieces: Stop and go back," said Mr Michele Emiliano.

He signed a decree saying anyone arriving from the vast northern red zone would have to put themselves in quarantine for two weeks.

The president of Calabria, Ms Jole Santelli, also urged people to steer clear. "The government must block an exodus to Calabria, which risks triggering a disastrous bomb," she said.

Streets in northern cities, including Milan, were quieter than normal yesterday morning.

Church services were cancelled in the region, while Pope Francis made his weekly Sunday blessing via a video link-up rather than directly from St Peter's Square to limit the risk of contagion.

It was the first time that the Pope had skipped giving the blessing and reading an address from the window since his election in 2013, apart from times when he was travelling outside Rome.

REUTERS