Wow! Italy’s Prime Minister Orders Nationwide Lockdown Until April Due to Coronavirus

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Giuseppe Conte, Italys Prime Minister, made an announcement in the early morning hours on Sunday that Northern Italy had been placed in lockdown until early April.

I found it interesting to see how the Italian government could force its citizens to involuntarily not to leave or move within the designated area of Northern Italy but I delayed writing about this announcement because I was confused by about the details.

For example, we live in a world where countries are globally connected and tourism is the foundation of many regions so how do you “lockdown” a specific region? Are citizens of other countries allowed to come/leave? Do the airports in the area (i.e. Milan’s Malpensa) remain open even if citizens are not allowed to leave? What about the rail links? So I held off from publishing an article until I understood more and assumed we would learn more details over the next few days.

THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY

Well, in less than 24 hours, Italy not only mandated a coronavirus quarantine to the Northern region on Sunday but extended it to the entire country on Monday, barring public gatherings of any size and any nonessential travel going into effect Tuesday morning.

People are only allowed to leave their homes for family emergencies, essential work, and to seek health care.

Conte’s “I Stay Home” decree bars weddings, funerals, all sporting events, and any other kind of public gathering.

In other words, travel to, from and within Italy is banned unless for health or other vital reasons. Bars and restaurants must close by 6 PM, and all public gatherings are not allowed.

Here’s an excerpt from the WSJ (access their piece here):

That means Italian authorities will allow travel to, from and within Italy only if it is demonstrably necessary for work or health reasons. The nationwide quarantine also means employees are urged to take vacation and stay home, bars and restaurants must close at 6 p.m., and virtually all public gatherings are banned. In shops, churches and all public places, people must keep a distance between themselves of a meter, or just over 3 feet.

FINAL STAMP

Although the coronavirus (known) infection rates in Italy are one of the highest outside of China, this policy is a rather drastic measure and surely kills any hopes of Northern Italy’s tourism sector to have a somewhat normal second half of 2020.

This development also sounds like a death sentence for the unprofitable “national” airline of Alitalia. Qatar Airways backed Air Italy just folded last month and I highly doubt Alitalia will survive this. In fact, there are 1.4 million seats between Italy and the rest of Europe on schedule this week which does not bode well for an airline that is based in a country that is in lockdown.

Again, I’m not completely sure how this development applies to foreign tourists but I wanted to publish this as soon as possible given that many people have planned travel to Italy.

We’ll see if other countries will implement similar measurements over the next month.

What do you make of this situation? Do you think other countries should follow Italy’s lead?