MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Italy in self-imposed quarantine: highest coronavirus death toll in the world after China

In Italy, scene of Europe's worst outbreak with infections and deaths soaring even as they slow in China, took its most drastic steps yet to contain the outbreak.

All of Italy under lockdown, reeling financial markets, and rioting prisoners made clear on Monday how the global coronavirus epidemic was extending its reach into all aspects of social and economic life.

Major European stock markets dived more than 7 per cent, Japanese indexes fell over 5 per cent and US markets sank over 7 per cent after Saudi Arabia launched an oil price war with Russia that sent investors already spooked by the coronavirus outbreak running for the exits.

In Italy, scene of Europe's worst outbreak with infections and deaths soaring even as they slow in China, took its most drastic steps yet to contain the outbreak.

It ordered everyone across the country not to move around other than for work and emergencies, banned all public gatherings and suspended sporting events, including soccer matches.

Deaths in Milan's Lombardy region - which had already been on lockdown with cinemas, theatres and museums closed and restaurant hours restricted - jumped 25 per cent in a day to 333, while the national death toll soared by 97 to 463, the highest in the world after China.

Over 9,000 people have become infected in Italy in little over two weeks, out of a global total of more than 110,000 in over 100 countries. Some 3,900 people have died across the world, the vast majority in mainland China.

“Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.

But he welcomed Italy's tough measures, noting that just four countries - China, South Korea, Italy and Iran - accounted for 93 per cent of cases worldwide. Israel ordered anyone entering the country to self-quarantine for 14-days on Monday.

“It would be the first pandemic that could be controlled,” Tedros added. “The bottom line is we are not at the mercy of the virus.”