Coronavirus: Italy bans any movement inside country as toll nears 5,500

PM shuts down all non-essential factories and businesses as lockdowns spread across the world

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Italy has banned any movement inside the country and closed all non-essential businesses as it desperately seeks to stem the spread of coronavirus following a horror weekend in which more than 1,400 people died.

The escalating measures, which leave the government short of remaining population control levers, came as the rate at which Covid-19 spread around the world continued to accelerate, growing by more 130,000 cases in the past four days.

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