More than one billion people worldwide told to stay home

A group of nurses wearing protective mask and gear pose for a group photo prior to their night shift in Lombardy, Italy on Monday. Pic/AFP

More than one billion people have been asked to stay home in more than 50 countries and territories around the world as governments battle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sweeping the globe, according to an AFP tally Monday.

Some countries imposed mandatory lockdown measures, while others have issued stay-at-home recommendations to stem the spread of the virus. At least 34 countries or territories have established mandatory lockdown measures ordering people to stay in their homes, accounting for some 659 million people. This includes France, Italy, Argentina, the US state of California, Iraq and Rwanda.

Greece is the most recent country to impose mandatory confinement measures, which came into effect on Monday morning. Colombia will enforce an obligatory lockdown on Tuesday and New Zealand will follow suit. But it wasn't until February 21 that the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19 was confirmed, in the town of Codogno, southeast of Milan. The town and 10 others, with a total population of 50,000, were immediately isolated.

Meanwhile, death toll in Spain surged to 2,182 after 462 people died within 24 hours. The death rate showed a 27-per cent increase on the figures released a day earlier, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 33,089 in Spain - one of the worst-hit countries in the world after China and Italy.

34
Total no. of countries currently under lockdown

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