Should countries follow Italy’s coronavirus quarantine?

Italy’s government has ordered some of the harshest measures outside China to try and contain the coronavirus. The country has the worst outbreak in Europe.

Sixteen million people – a quarter of the population – have already been affected by restrictions on movement. Everyone is banned from leaving 16 provinces in northern Italy, the country’s economic heart.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Monday that the travel restrictions and other strict public health measures will be expanded across the country on Tuesday. 

Italy’s government is asking the European Union to implement urgent measures as the virus spreads quickly across the continent.

Should other countries follow the measures imposed by Italy and China? Or is it too little, too late?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Andreas Kappes – lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of London

Marilisa Palumbo – journalist and editor at the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Serra

Annie Sparrow – professor of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York