Italy to close all stores except pharmacies and food outlets in response to coronavirus

Italy has said all stores except pharmacies and food outlets will be closed in response to the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte thanked the public for cooperating with the already unprecedented travel and social restrictions that took effect Tuesday.

But he said Wednesday night on Facebook Live that Italy must " go another step" by closing all shops and businesses except for food stores, pharmacies and other shops selling "essential" items.

The tighter restrictions on daily life are the government's latest effort to respond to the fast-moving crisis that took Italy's number of cases from three to 12,462 in less than three weeks.

Mr Conte made the announcement in response to requests from Lombardy, Italy's hardest-hit region, to toughen the already extraordinary anti-virus lockdown that was extended nationwide Tuesday.

Lombardy asked to shut down nonessential businesses and reduce public transportation.

These measures are on on top of travel and social restrictions that imposed an eerie hush on cities and towns across the country. Police enforced rules that customers stay 1 meter (3 feet) apart and ensured that businesses closed by 6 p.m.

Milan shopkeeper Claudia Sabbatini said she favoured the stricter measures. Rather than risk customers possibly infecting each other in her children's clothing store, she closed it.

"I cannot have people standing at a distance. Children must try on the clothes. We have to know if they will fit," she said.

Mr Conte emphasised fighting the outbreak must not come at the expense of civil liberties, suggesting that Italy is unlikely to adopt the draconian quarantine measures that helped China push down new infections from thousands per day to a trickle and allowed its manufacturers to restart production lines.