A cashier wears a face mask as she talks to a client in a supermarket in Casalpusterlengo, northern Italy. Paolo Santalucia/AP
I traveled to Italy at the same time the news was emerging of a rapid increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.
More than 150 new cases were announced over the weekend, the largest outbreak in Europe. Previously, Italy had only two positive cases.
When I got off the plane in Rome, each passenger was asked to pause by members of the Italian Red Cross while our temperatures were registered. Signs in Italian, English and Chinese had been set up at the airport terminals, depicting the symptoms of the COVID-19 and what to do if you exhibited any of them.
A public safety announcement was then repeated on the local trains from the airport into town.
Late on Saturday, when the number of new positive cases was released, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced an emergency decree.
"We have decided that in the areas identified as disease outbreaks, entry and exit are not allowed unless specific exceptions are permitted and assessed on a case-by-case basis. Obviously, in the areas concerned and identified as outbreaks, we decided the suspension of work activities in the form of collective or individual initiatives, the suspension of public events, various events, and educational, didactic and scholastic activities.”
In Italy's northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, where the majority of new cases are, the government has placed around a dozen towns and their 50,000 inhabitants under complete lockdown.
Schools, universities, cinemas and museums in those regions have been shut. Football matches, fashion shows and even Venice's carnival celebrations, which attracts thousands of visitors every year, have either been cancelled or ended early.
Italian soldiers wearing sanitary masks patrol Duomo square in downtown Milan, Italy. Claudio Furlan/Lapresse via AP
I was quickly taken off the original meeting in Rome I was assigned to and diverted straight to Milan, the capital of Lombardy.
However, it wasn't until I boarded the regional train up north that I started to see more and more people wearing masks. It was then that I started feeling the seriousness of the situation.
By Sunday evening, three of the patients had died; by Monday morning, a fourth death had been announced, followed by a fifth soon afterwards and a sixth on Monday afternoon.
Natalie Carney reporting from Milan. /CGTN
The government is still unsure how exactly to tackle the mounting cases within its borders.
Prime Minister Conte hasn't ruled out the suggestion by the country's far-right La League party to suspend the Schengen agreement that allows free movement between European Union member countries, saying that the government would take "any measure to safeguard the health of citizens," and guarantee "maximum protection."
Neighboring Austria is reportedly considering border controls with Italy.
Almost all the new cases have been linked to a 38-year-old man who sought treatment at a hospital in Lombardy on February 18, where he is said to have infected dozens of other patients and medical staff, who then spread the virus further.
The WHO sent a special mission to Italy on Tuesday to help identify the initial source of the infections.