Coronavirus: Italy preparing to quarantine key regions

Italy’s government is set to pass a law to ban entry and exit from Lombardy and 11 provinces in the north of the country as it ramps up efforts to fight the coronavirus.

Following Saturday’s developments which saw a significant increase in reported cases of COVID-10 in Italy, authorities are looking at locking down large regions of the country into quarantine with a decree on travel in and out of the region.

Over 1,200 coronavirus cases were reported in Italy over the past 24 hours, which pushes the nation’s total cases to 5,883 making it the third-worst hit country only behind China and South Korea. 233 coronavirus deaths have been reported in Italy including 36 new deaths on Saturday.

The order would include imposing fines on anyone caught entering or leaving the regions classified as ‘red zones’ including the region of Lombardy plus 11 provinces: Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini in the region of Emilia-Romagna - Venice, Padua and Treviso in the region of Veneto - Asti and Alessandria in Piedmont - and the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the central region of Marche.

The knock-on effect on the motorsport world would be significant by effectively banning travel to and from the impacted regions for teams and personnel.

Certain exceptions will also be put in place for emergencies as well as family and work commitments, but it remains unclear if the Italian authorities would permit the travelling motorsport world in and out of the regions, especially when heading on to travel abroad.

MotoGP’s premier class event at the 2020 opener in Qatar has already been cancelled due to the 14-day quarantine restrictions on arrivals into Qatar from anyone who has been in Italy over the past two weeks.

The Thailand MotoGP event has also been postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak, while today the third round in the United States has been plunged into doubt as the City of Austin declared a ‘local state of emergency’.

The quarantine restrictions in Italy will also impact Formula 1’s travel commitments for Italian-based teams Ferrari and AlphaTauri who are set to be hit plus tyre manufacturer Pirelli and numerous other companies working in the sport.

As it stands, the 2020 F1 opening round in Australia is set to take place next weekend (March 13-15), followed by the second round in Bahrain a week later (March 20-22) and third round in Vietnam (April 3-5). The Chinese Grand Prix has already been postponed.

Formula E has seen both its Chinese (cancelled) and Italian (postponed) rounds impacted, while the World Superbike championship has also postponed its Qatar round.