ROME — The Italian government has taken the unprecedented measure of limiting movement for 60 million people in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.

In a press conference Monday evening, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a nationwide lockdown, under which people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work or health reasons.

Schools and universities as well as public venues, including cinemas, theaters and gyms, will remain shut from Tuesday morning until April 3. Professional sports events, including Serie A football matches, are also suspended.

Meanwhile, restaurants and cafes must observe a 6 p.m. curfew and large gatherings, including those outdoors, will be forbidden.

The decision to extend the emergency measures put in place on Sunday for Lombardy and 14 other provinces at the epicenter of the outbreak came after a spike in infections over the last 24 hours.

"The situation risks going out of control and these measures are necessary to keep the spread at bay" — Walter Ricciardi, Italian government's coronavirus adviser

“We have no time to adapt, numbers tell us we have a spike in infections, people in intensive care and deaths,” said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. “Our habits must change right now.”

To date, over 7,800 people have tested positive for coronavirus and over 460 have died.

According to Walter Ricciardi, the Italian government's coronavirus adviser, "an increase of 1,700 cases in one day is striking."

"The situation risks going out of control and these measures are necessary to keep the spread at bay," Ricciardi, who is also a member of the World Health Organization's European advisory committee, added.

Anyone trying to move from one municipality to another will have to complete and present a form (available here) stating what is their urgent reason for travel — work, health, family or returning home.

Conte told reporters that breaking the travel restrictions by giving false reasons for traveling on the form could be considered a crime.

The extreme containment measures have already had a catastrophic effect on Italy's transport and tourism sectors, with the industries looking at billions in lost profits for this quarter. Overall, the Italian treasury expects the outbreak to have extremely negative effects on the economy, which is likely to plunge into a recession.

Conte said Italy will probably have to ask the European Commission for more flexibility because the €7.5 billion in extra borrowing it had told Brussels was needed last Friday is likely to be insufficient to navigate the emergency. The initial flexibility request from Italy would have brought the deficit-to-gross domestic product ratio to 2.5 percent for this year, not far from the 3 percent limit imposed by EU rules.

Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy, told a TV show on Monday night the country is in no position to ask Europe for extra flexibility, it's just going to have to do what is necessary to avoid tanking the economy.

Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said in a Facebook post the measures announced by the government "are a welcome first step but aren't enough." Salvini said more needs to be done: "We must shut everything immediately and we must factor in aid for businesses and families ... not €7 billion but €70 billion and the EU must not waste time over discussions."

Government officials, however, have suggested public health should take priority over the economy as health authorities have raised concerns over a shortage of places in intensive care units.

Antonio Pesenti, a doctor who coordinates the crisis unit for Lombardy, said the region is running out of hospital places. "If people don't understand they need to stay home, the situation will be catastrophic," he said on Sunday.

Reports over the weekend showed hundreds of people hitting the ski slopes in the Alps and filling Milan's bars and restaurants despite the restrictions. On Saturday night, news of the government measures affecting Lombardy and other northern provinces leaked to the press, prompting hundreds of people to flee the so-called extended red zone to join their families down south and avoid being trapped in the region.

The government slammed such behaviour as irresponsible. And Jole Santelli, governor of the southern region of Calabria, said on Monday the region "does not have the capacity to care for hundreds of patients in need of intensive care."

Christian Salaroli, an anaesthesiologist in Bergamo, one of the most affected cities in Lombardy, told Italian news agency Agi: "It's a warlike situation, there's a disproportion between places available and patients in critical condition ... therefore we have to choose who to save."