A series of photos from across Italy on Sunday by EPA photographers after the Italian government placed up to 16 million people under quarantine as it battles to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Anyone living in Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces will need special permission to travel. Milan and Venice are both affected.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues across the whole country.
The measures, the most radical taken outside China, will last until 3 April.
A view of the nearly-deserted Piazza del Duomo (‘Cathedral Square’) in the center of the Lombardian capital of Milan, northern Italy, 08 March 2020. EPA-EFE/MATTEO CORNERParma’s players return in the dressing room prior to the Italian Serie A soccer match Parma Calcio vs S.P.A.L at Ennio Tardini stadium in Parma, Italy, 08 March 2020. The two teams were ready to enter the field, but were brought back to the locker room. At the Tardini the teams were stopped a few minutes before the kick-off in light of the government’s request through the sports minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, to immediately stop the championship. EPA-EFE/ELISABETTA BARACCHIA view of the customs control at the Ponte Chiasso border crossing on the Italian-Swiss border in Como, northern Italy, 08 March 2020. According to Italian state news agency ANSA, border police have not yet received any special instructions regarding cross-border commuters entering the so-called coronavirus ‘red zone.’ Italian authorities have taken the drastic measure of shutting off the entire northern Italian region of Lombardy, home to about 16 million people, in a bid to halt the ongoing coronavirus epidemic in the Mediterranean country. EPA-EFE/MATTEO BAZZIAn interior view of the nearly-empty Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcades (Italy’s oldest active shopping mall) in the Lombardian capital of Milan, northern Italy, 08 March 2020. EPA-EFE/MATTEO CORNERA view of empty chairs at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, 08 March 2020. Pope Francis (onscreen) decided to lead the weekly Sunday Angelus prayer from within the library of the Apostolic Palace, which was broadcast through livestreaming technology, amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic ravaging Italy. EPA-EFE/RICCARDO ANTIMIANIPassengers wearing medical face masks walk inside the nearly-deserted Central Railway Station in Milan, Italy, 08 March 2020. EPA-EFE/ANDREA FASANIA handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during an emergency cabinet meeting at the Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy, 08 March 2020. EPA-EFE/FILIPPO ATTILI / CHIGI PALACE PRESS OFFICE HANDOUT
