The government on Friday declared a six-month state of emergency a day after the deadly coronavirus was diagnosed in two Chinese tourists visiting Italy and the UN World Health Organisation declared global health emergency.
The government said it was earmarking five million euros for measures to safeguard Italy against the virus, which has now claimed at least 213 lives in China, where almost 10,000 people have been infected.
There have been 98 cases in 18 other countries, according to the WHO, but no deaths.
"Italy's measures are precautionary and are the most extensive in the world," health minister Roberto Speranza said after Friday's cabinet meeting.
Premier Giuseppe Conte announced late Thursday that the deadly disease was diagnosed in two Chinese tourists in Rome, but said the situation was "absolutely under control."
"We are almost completely sure that has been no further contagion," the Scientific Director of Rome's Spallanzani hospital, where the two Chinese tourists are being treated, told Radio Capital.
Italy has suspended all flights connections to China, and Conte said the country was the first in the European Union "to take such a precautionary measure."
Nearly 7,000 people were confined for hours in a cruise ship at the port of Civitavecchia near Rome on Thursday after a suspected coronavirus case was ruled out in the evening.
