Four highly-populated Italian cities are at risk of being declared “red zones” and put into strict lockdowns as new daily Wuhan coronavirus cases surge.
Lockdowns could soon be implemented in Rome, Genoa, Naples, and Milan, the latter seeing 1,858 new Wuhan coronavirus cases in just 24 hours. Genoa, meanwhile, has seen the most positive infections in relation to the total number of tests.
Walter Ricciardi, a consultant to the Italian Minister of Health, said several metropolitan areas are out of control in terms of the spread of the virus, newspaper Il Giornale reports.
“Milan must take the necessary measures, including possibly becoming a red zone,” Ricciardi said.
What sort of lockdown measures will be implemented if the cities become “red zones” remains unclear. Earlier in the year, such areas had travel bans as well as strict orders for residents to stay in their homes, except for necessary travel, with businesses forced to close.
Italians demonstrated against the strict lockdown measures as they carried on for months. The unrest led to the government opening certain businesses weeks ahead of schedule.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Italy saw a daily new case record on Friday, October 23rd, with 16,0778 cases reported. Daily deaths from the disease, however, are far below the record of 971 on March 28th.
Italy is not the only country seeing a surge in cases in recent weeks. Many European countries have been forced to introduce measures, such as curfews, to deal with the spread of coronavirus as some countries see record-high numbers of new daily patients.
While some countries have enacted curfews, the Czech Republic has put lockdown measures in place, including mandatory mask-wearing outside and has closed nearly all shops except supermarkets, pharmacies, and select others.