Major lockdown in Lombardy and across Northern Italy

Sad! I just spoke with relatives and they are locked down.

Hey hey frank
thanks for info. This is so much to take in and so so sad for all residents.
@diane are your relatives okay?
we are getting more cases in Bay Area with state of emergency declared. I’m staying put, was going to a festival and next week Saint Patrick’s Day parade in San Francisco. All cancelled.
going to friends house for dinner and glass of wine
take care everyone and be safe
aloha

This is going in the wrong trajectory.

Damn.

Yes, relatives ok so far.

It's a nightmare over here. Red zone extended to Emilia Romagna including Modena province where I live. The President of ER is now asking for "clarification". Meanwhile last night thousands were fleeing Milan to go to southern Italy. Schools where I am have been closed since February 21st. We will not be allowed to move out of our area and there is talk about restricting you to your comune.

It only seems reasonable that if you can’t come out of the quarantine area then tourist wouldn’t be allowed in?
What a nightmare for officials in Italy.
Relatives are posting photos of the traffic jam heading to the south. All of Italy is going to be involved soon.

"Relatives are posting the traffic jam heading to the south. All of Italy is going to be involved soon. "

Well that certainly ended a lot differently than the Italian officials were expecting. Aren't there manned roadblocks or something?

-- Mike Beebe

I read there are police around the red zones but possibly those getting out are from the areas that were just announced? The older relatives ( living in the north) don’t speak a lot of English, and my Italian is from my college years a long time ago. I have cousins further south who speak English well. So far I haven’t been able to reach them. I’ll post if I get info.

I sure hope these extreme measures allow them to get the situation under control. Hopefully none of those that are fleeing the north for points south are infected as that will only worsen the crisis.

Certainly those fleeing south will be welcomed by the southern Italians the way people from Wuhan, with their district accents, were welcomed in the rest of China. Denied hotel rooms, service refused in restaurants, chased, harassed. Parents of an acquaintance, who had been out of the country when it all started, gave up and left Beijing to go home to Wuhan or they would have starved.

Meanwhile last night thousands were fleeing Milan to go to southern
Italy.

I'm not sure I understand this comment. Why would they flee their own homes, if they will not be let back in? The whole point of containment is to stop movement and community spread to other areas - it's unpleasant, to be sure, but it has a clear objective. Plus they'd be fleeing better medical infrastructure in the north, should they get sick.

It's Italian disorganization at its finest. The government declares a quarantine to stop the virus spread but doesn't direct trains, planes and busses to stop transporting people out of the red zones. The majority of people "fleeing" Milan are university students who didn't want to be under quarantine so they went back to their hometown in the south - and may have brought the virus back with them. The regions in the south are alarmed bc they definitely don't have the facilities for an outbreak and will ask those returning to "self quarantine". Sigh.

My husband is on his way home from Florence as we speak. He is on a train to FCO from Florence right now. Interestingly enough, it came for Milan which seems impossible, but I guess trains are still running from Milan?

The situation there really has escalated in the past couple of days. We have relatives in several provinces as well. I cannot wait until he is home.

Here is the map of the largest ZTL ever

@Morgan and others.
Various reports are saying this is not the same rules as the "red zones" which have been around certain small towns for a few weeks. Those are a total block on people going in and out. This are not as strict.

Reports I have seen are saying trains are running. Trains to elsewhere in Italy, and trains to and from Switzerland.

@Mile Beeb - "Aren't there manned roadblocks or something?" - because of the large area involved that would be impossible. I am not sure how they are going to handle road traffic. Blocking the autostrada would just divert everybody onto other roads. And they still need to get deliveries in and out. And a huge chunk of Italian foreign trade takes the Gotthard route, straight through the middle of Lombardy.

An Milan airports are still operating: https://www.milanomalpensa-airport.com/en/