Canada warns against travel to 8 regions of Italy amid coronavirus outbreak

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TORONTO — Canada has issued a travel advisory for several regions in northern Italy that are grappling with rapid increases in COVID-19 cases.

The advisory, which went into effect Monday morning, covers the country's eight northernmost regions: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtiro, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Liguria and Emilia-Romagna.

Major cities in those regions include Milan, Venice, Turin and Genoa. The advisory stops just short of the popular tourist destination of Tuscany.

In addition to warning against travel, the advisory means that the government wants Canadians already in northern Italy to reconsider whether they should remain there.

Italy has been the hardest-hit country by the new coronavirus outside Asia. As of Monday morning, there had been 1,694 cases of COVID-19 reported, resulting in 34 deaths. Both of those numbers had doubled within the past four days.

In its travel health notice for Italy, the government says that "widespread transmission is being reported in multiple regions" and "confirmed cases that are linked to Italy are being reported in other countries."

The U.S. had issued a similar travel advisory for Italy last Friday. Canada has been slower to urge its citizens to reconsider travel plans due to the coronavirus. Prior to Monday, Canada had only issued advisories for China and two cities in South Korea.

The government says travellers to the rest of Italy do not need to take any special precautions.