Italy is on lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak (Picture: Franco Origlia)

The death toll from coronavirus in Italy has risen from 631 to 827 – the largest day-on-day jump in fatalities since the country’s outbreak began.



Another 196 people have died from the deadly disease since Tuesday, giving Italy the largest death toll outside of China. At the same time the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose by more than 2,000, from 10,149 to 12,462 today.



Italian officials attributed the huge one-day increase to the heavily impacted Lombardy region not fully reporting its numbers on Tuesday.

The new figures come as the country enters its second day under an unprecedented quarantine to contain the spread of the virus.


Police and Army make checks on passengers at Central Station, Milan (Picture: Rex)

The Italian government has banned all public gatherings while cinemas, theatres, gyms and pubs have been closed. Funerals and weddings will not take place while schools and universities will remain shut until April 3.





The lockdown measures initially applied to the northern Lombardy region, the epicentre of the country’s outbreak. However on Monday officials ramped up their battle against Covid-19, with the entire population told to stay indoors unless travel is absolutely necessary.

Frightened Italians say they are being ‘terrorised’ by police who are forcing people to keep their distance in public places to stop the spread of coronavirus.



Officers across the country have patrolled cafes to ensure owners kept customers one metre apart during daylight hours and then enforced a strict 6pm closure order.

Italy has implemented the strictest quarantine rules outside China, where the disease first emerged in Wuhan in December.

The empty Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome amid Italy’s coronavirus lockdown (Picture: Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto)

The World Health Organisation has suggested other countries implement similar draconian measures after it officially declared the outbreak as a pandemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries were being called upon ‘to scale up your emergency response mechanisms.’

His advice included: ‘Ready your hospitals, protect and train your health workers, and let’s all look out for each other because we need each other.’



Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, gave a blunt warning about the urgency of the public health emergency.

Ryan said: ‘Iran and Italy are in the frontline now. They’re suffering, but I guarantee you other countries will be in that situation soon’.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on other countries to introduce tough measures to fight coronavirus (Picture: AFP)

Iran said today that coronavirus had killed 63 more people, raising the death toll to 354 amid over 9,000 cases in the Islamic Republic.

However insiders have widely disputed the official figures, with videos of mass bodies piled up in morgues leading to accusations the state is covering up the scale of the crisis.

The UK faced its largest day-on-day jump in cases today, with a further

83 people testing positive for the disease, bringing the total to 456.

The Department of Health released updated figures after a 53-year-old British woman died in Bali after contracting coronavirus.

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She is the eighth British person to die from coronavirus. An Indonesian government spokesman said she was already ‘critically ill’ before being diagnosed with coronavirus, and had underlying health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and lung disease.



Boris Johnson has faced pressure to shut all schools now with experts warning the UK could be headed for an Italian-style lockdown if the government does not act fast.

Today, Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £30 billion plan to help off-set the impact of coronavirus on the economy, including giving the NHS ‘whatever it needs’ to contain the disease.

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