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Passengers get off the train arriving from Milan (Milan), at the Garibaldi central station train in Naples, southern Italy. The Italian authorities are taking all necessary measures to close the entire northern Italian region of Lombardy, which is home to around 16 million people, in an attempt to stop the COVID 19 coronavirus.
KONTROLAB<\/p><\/div>\n
Italy\u2019s extended quarantine restricting the movement of people in its industrial northern heartland have provoked panic among residents and accentuated the country\u2019s north-south divide.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister\u00a0Giuseppe Conte signed\u00a0a decree<\/a> on Sunday imposing restrictions to the movement of people in the northern region of Lombardy\u00a0\u2014 the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy\u00a0\u2014 and 14 other provinces across the north, until April 3. The measures (an extension of a preexisting lockdown of 11 towns in Lombardy and Veneto) now affect more than 16 million people, banning them from moving in and out of those areas.<\/p>\n The publication of a draft decree Saturday afternoon by a newspaper revealing the forthcoming, wider quarantine measures prompted panic among residents trying to get out before the restrictions came into force after midnight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Media reports said bars and restaurants emptied and thousands of people tried to\u00a0leave the region in cars and trains, where there were reports of shoving and pushing by passengers.<\/p>\n Violent protests have broken out in 27 Italian prisons against coronavirus restrictions with many inmates asking for an amnesty due to the virus emergency, news agency ANSA reported Monday, citing local sources.<\/p>\n Some 20 inmates had managed to break out of Foggia prison in Puglia during a riot Monday morning, ANSA said citing local sources.\u00a0\u00a0Shop keepers in the area were told to close their shops in the vicinity of the prison.<\/p>\n Prison unrest broke out in a prison in Modena Sunday after inmates were informed that visits from relatives had been banned to prevent the spread of infection. In the south, relatives of detainees in a Poggioreale prison in Naples clashed with police against the government ban.<\/p>\n Relatives of the detainees in Poggioreale prison clash with the police to protest the government\u2019s ban on visiting detainees to prevent infection with Coronavirus (COVID-19) in prisons.\u00a0 –\u00a0 KONTROLAB<\/p><\/div>\n Italian stocks on the blue-chip FTSE MIB<\/a>\u00a0initially failed to open Monday along with other European markets. When the index did open, stocks were trading down around 2,290 points, or around 11% lower, and by late afternoon the index was down around 9.5%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/106431862-1583747680435gettyimages-1206110464.jpg\")
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