Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Friday urged citizens to stay at home during Italy's dramatic coronavirus epidemic as ordered by the government and took a swipe at dog-walkers and joggers.
"I repeat: you need to stay at home. We have to follow the rules, and the more that irresponsible people flout them, the more severe and restrictive will be the measures that we will put in place," Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
"The sacrifices made by doctors, nurses and security forces cannot be in vain or compromised by people who take their dogs out 10 times a day and joggers who have never done a stroke of exercise in their lives."
Italy is in the grip of the world's worst coronavirus outbreak outside China and has counted 4,032 deaths so far from Covid-19 - more than China. The number of dead recorded on Friday increased by 627 - the biggest day-to-day rise in the country's four-week epidemic
The number of coronavirus deaths and infections are continuing to jump daily despite a drastic nationwide lockdown that began last week.
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