Italian government closes down schools and universities until mid-March

Some of the worst-affected schools in the country's north had already shut.

In parallel, Sports Minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, said that the government was likely to order that professional soccer matches and other big sporting events be played behind closed doors.

The death toll in Italy from the virus jumped the day before from 52 to 79 while the casecount from the virus had reached 2,502, making the country the virus's epicentre in Europe.

Many airlines on the Continent had also already cancelled flights to and from Italy as a result.

And Italy’s health authorities had said that they might set up a new quarantine area, a so-called “red zone,” around the city of Bergamo, northeast of Milan, to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.

“None of us can be sure about the future evolution of the disease. This is an important week to understand what will happen,” Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection Agency, had told a news conference the day before.