Empty shops, deserted streets as Italy imposes #Coronavirus lockdown

Closed shops, plunging stock markets and prison riots marked the first day after Italy locked down much of its northern region in a bid to fight the coronavirus outbreak with its most draconian control measures since World War Two, write James Mackenzie and Elvira Pollina.

Faced with Europe’s worst outbreak of the highly contagious virus, Italy imposed strict controls on travel from the northern region of Lombardy and parts of neighbouring Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna.

The government also ordered cinemas, theatres and museums to close, cancelled sporting events and told shops and restaurants to ensure that patrons remained at least a metre (yard) apart.

Parliament has virtually closed down due to contagion fears, meeting just once a week to prevent a huge backlog of work.

The measures adopted by decree on Sunday extended measures including school closures that were imposed after the coronavirus emerged in a small town outside the financial capital Milan last month.

The number of recorded cases jumped by 24% over the past 24 hours to 9,172 while the number of deaths rose 26.5% to 463, putting Italy’s health system under massive strain.

“We have two objectives, contain the spread of this virus and strengthen the health system so that it can meet this challenge,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview with the daily La Repubblica. “We’re a strong country.”

In Milan, public transport was working but streets were much quieter than normal, with many smaller shops and cafes closed. Even among those left open, most remained empty, meaning any requirement to maintain a distance of at least a metre between customers was purely theoretical.

“There’s been nobody at all. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a shop assistant at the Rinascente department store in the city centre.

It was a similar story in Rome, even though the Italian capital is not under lockdown, unlike much of the north.

“If it carries on like this I will go out of business,” said Franco Giovinazzo, who runs Spazio Caffe in central Rome, after selling just six coffees in the normally busy breakfast period.

JAIL RIOTS

But the most dramatic illustration of the shock came in the country’s overcrowded prisons where inmates rioted in jails across the country. In Modena, a badly affected city, six prisoners died in a riot apparently triggered by restrictions on visiting rights imposed to fight the virus.

The disease has touched most aspects of life in Italy, including sport. Soccer authorities have tried to get around a ban on public gatherings by playing matches behind closed doors, but on Monday the country’s top sports body said all sports events should be cancelled until April 3.

“Health protection is the top priority for everyone,” said the National Olympic Committee (CONI), calling on the government to issue a decree to enforce a suspension.

The World Health Organization welcomed Italy’s efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

“We are encouraged that Italy is taking aggressive measures to contain its epidemic and we hope that those measures prove effective in the coming days,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom told reporters in Geneva.

But with the country already on the brink of recession, the government’s steps have come at a huge economic cost.

Clamping down on movement in and out of Lombardy, including the financial capital Milan, and other large parts of the north, will take a heavy toll on growth in Italy’s wealthiest and most productive region.

The Milan bourse, which was down some 17% since the outbreak in northern Italy, lost a further 11% on Monday, underperforming its regional peers.

At the same time, the spectre of past crises returned as Italy’s cost of borrowing shot up. Government bond yields rose sharply, pushing the gap between Italy and benchmark German 10-year bond yields above 200 basis points for the first time since August 2019.

The government has promised 7.5 billion euros ($8.57 billion) to alleviate the economic impact of the crisis, and parliament will vote on Wednesday to approve the resulting hike in the budget deficit to 2.5% of national output from 2.2%.

The 630-seat Chamber of Deputies agreed on Monday that only 350 of its members, mainly from less affected central and southern regions, should turn up to vote, allowing the northern ones to remain at home.

“I’ve got a two-and-a-half-month-old baby and I could never forgive myself if I gave him something,” a deputy from Milan told Reuters.