Italy has widened the quarantine to as much as 16mn of its citizens in a bid to battle coronavirus that has already spread in the European country. With the new regulations, anyone in Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces will have to seek special permission to travel. The tourist hotbeds both Venice and Milan are affected by epidemic.

The country’s premier Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, museums, gyms, tourist spots, nightclubs, stadiums and other public locations in the Italy. This would be the bigger quarantine outside China and will last until April 3, 2020. The country has witnessed the largest number of coronavirus cases in Europe which surged on Saturday. The new measures have placed up to a quarter of Italy’s population on quarantine while directly targeting center on the northern part of the country that pumps its economic growth.

In other reports, the death toll in the country has passed 230 mark with 36 more lives claimed by the Covid-19 in last 24 hours. A steep rise has also been noted in news cased that jumped from 1,200 to 5,883 on Saturday. Despite the new measures, at least 7 flights have landed at Milan’s Malpensa airport from different European cities on Sunday, the flight tracking websites noted.

The new restrictions apply to 14 provinces Modena, Reggio, Rimini, Asti, Verbano Cusio, Treviso, Vercelli, Novara, Urbino, Piacenza, Parma, Pesaro, Alessandria, Ossola, Padua and Emilia and under the new measures people form these areas will not be able to enter or leave the whole northern region of Lombardy home to 10mn people except for emergency access. Milan is the main city in the region.

“There will be no movement in or out of these areas, or within them, unless for proven, work-related reasons emergencies or health reasons,” Mr. Conte address reporters.

“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency. We have to limit the spread of the virus and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed.”