Italy Expands Coronavirus Restrictions Nationwide

Italy has expanded its restrictions on public movement nationwide due to the coronavirus. 

Monday evening Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the country to “stay at home,” CNBC reports, with travel only allowed for urgent situations. Public civil and religious ceremonies have also been suspended, and restaurant and bar activities are only allowed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Italy is the country with the second-most cases of the coronavirus following China, with 9,172 confirmed cases as of Tuesday morning. 

A number of airlines have issued Italy-specific cancellation and change waivers due to the outbreak:

Alitalia is offering customers scheduled to fly through April 3 to rebook through June 30, or change their destination but keep the same travel date, without penalty. Rebooking must be completed by April 3. 

American Airlines customers scheduled to travel through April 24 can rebook through June 30 between the same city pair in the same cabin (or pay the difference). 

Travelers on Delta scheduled to fly through May 31 can rebook through December 31, with the new ticket to be reissued on or before that date. 

United Airlines is allowing customers scheduled to fly through April 30 to rebook through June 30 with no change fee or difference in fare, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed. For wholly rescheduled travel departing after June 30, 2020, or for a change in departure or destination city, the change fee will be waived, but a difference in fare may apply. Rescheduled travel must be completed within one year from the date when the ticket was issued.

American, Delta and United also have general change fee waivers in place, regardless of destination. 

There are currently over 109,500 cases of the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, worldwide, according to the latest situation report by the World Health Organization (WHO). Three thousand, eight hundred and nine people have died from the illness thus far. 

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