A bartender wears a face mask at a cafe in downtown Naples, southern Italy. Photo / AP
A bartender wears a face mask at a cafe in downtown Naples, southern Italy. Photo / AP
Italy has announced all shops except pharmacies and food outlets will be closed in response to the country's coronavirus outbreak.
The move comes as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Italy jumped in the past 24 hours by 196 to 827. More than 12,000 have been infected.
"Weclose shops, bars, pubs and restaurants. Home delivery is allowed," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.
A street is almost empty in downtown Naples, southern Italy. Photo / AP
Conte said in press conference that essential public services, including public transport and utilities, are "guaranteed" and asked people to stay indoors unless they need to buy food or other necessities
The northern region of Lombardy is by far the worst-hit part of Italy. It has also seen most of the deaths with 617 in total as of Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation declared that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic.
By reversing course and using the charged word "pandemic" that it had previously shied away from, the UN health agency sought to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops.
"We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.
People line up at a grocery store in the town of Codogno, in the region of Lombardia, northern Italy. Photo / AP
"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilise their people in the response," he said.
"We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."
Meanwhile, a top Italian doctor said intensive care wards should place an age limit on beds as a way of prioritising medical resources amid the deepening crisis, the Daily Mail reported.
Rather than admit patients on a "first come first served" basis, hospitals should swap to "catastrophe medicine" guidelines - typically used in war zones and during natural disasters - where those with the greatest chance of survival are given priority.
The guidelines should apply to all patients needing intensive care treatment and not just those suffering from coronavrius, according to guidance published this week by the Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SAARI).
If a limit on beds is implemented it could mean elderly patients with no signs of coronavirus being turfed off ICU wards to make space for younger patients who have longer left to live.
