Italian borrowing costs down as ECB launches $820 billion coronavirus package

Hospitals in Italy’s Lombardy, the epicenter of the country’s coronvirus outbreak, are reaching the point where they may not be able to treat any new cases of the virus, as Italy’s death toll rises at a record rate.

Medical facilities in Lombardy will “soon” be unable to help new coronavirus cases, the region’s Governor Attilio Fontana said Wednesday, as he urged everyone to stay at home.

“Unfortunately the numbers of the contagion are not falling, they continue to be high,” he said. “We will soon be unable to give a response to those who fall ill,” news agency ANSA reported. “Stay at home: if you don’t understand that we’ll have to be more aggressive.”

Lombardy, a wealthy region in northern Italy where the country’s financial hub Milan is located, is where Italy’s coronavirus epidemic started. It remains the region worst affected by the virus, by far. There are now 12,266 positive cases in Lombardy, followed by 3,915 cases in Emilia-Romagna and 2,953 in Veneto, data from Italy’s Civil Protection agency showed Wednesday.

As the coronavirus outbreak in Italy continues to spread, the government is reportedly considering extending a national lockdown beyond April 3.

Under the lockdown rules, Italian citizens can only leave their homes to get food or medicines (grocery stores and pharmacies are the only stores that remain open), or to perform other essential services or to go to work.

However, Italy’s interior ministry said Wednesday that 43,000 people been caught breaking the lockdown rules in the first week of controls, with a million people being checked since March 11 when most public places closed.

Italy’s tally of coronavirus cases and deaths jumped on Wednesday; 2,978 have now died from coronavirus in Italy, 475 more than Tuesday.