'A lot of tension'

Italian media reports said people had been frantically buying food and other essentials at supermarkets since the nationwide lockdown was announced.

Greg Foster, a Briton living in the ancient hilltop city of Matera in the extreme south of Italy, said people understand the need for the restrictions, but many do not like them. "There's a lot of tension. It's all very unnerving."

He said all entertainment venues were closed in the city, along with office buildings.

Notices have been placed at restaurant entrances, telling customers they must wash their hands, keep at least 1 meter apart and avoid any physical contact, he added.

For many people, the introduction of the restrictions triggered the urge to flee "virus hotspots" to other parts of the country, resulting in checkpoints being installed on motorways, at railway stations and at airports.

The Carabinieri, Italy's military police, are enforcing travel restrictions on the country's roads, along with municipal police forces. Railway police and healthcare workers are ensuring that people do not travel on the country's railways without good reason.

Those who flout the travel restrictions face a three-month prison term.

Italian politician Lia Quartapelle said on Today, the BBC's flagship breakfast radio program, that she believed the Italian public was starting to get behind the lockdown.

"We're seeing that people are increasingly understanding that they have to behave differently," she said.

However, business broadcaster CNBC said the travel restrictions and other measures had prompted panic among many Italians. It said thousands of people who viewed a draft version of the new restrictions on Saturday, when it was published by a newspaper, immediately left the virus-hit north of the country in droves.

The possibility of people infected with the virus flooding into the south, where hospitals are not so well equipped as those in the north, prompted Michele Emiliano, president of the southern Puglia region, to take to Facebook.

"I speak to you as if you were my children, my brothers, my nephews and nieces: Stop and go back," he posted. "Do not bring the epidemic that has hit Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna to your Puglia."

Jole Santelli, the governor of Calabria, also in the south of the country, told La Repubblica newspaper, "Returning from the north in an uncontrolled way puts our country in danger."

He said the government must prevent such mass movements of people if it is to avoid "a disastrous bomb".

While hospitals in the north are undoubtedly better equipped than their southern counterparts, they are already under immense pressure.

Antonio Pesenti, the intensive care coordinator in Lombardy, which has the largest proportion of infections, wrote on Facebook that the region's healthcare system was "one step from collapse".

"We are now being forced to set up intensive care treatment in corridors. We've emptied entire hospital sections to make space for people who are seriously sick," he said.

Pesenti added that the region's hospital system was grappling with "a tsunami of patients" and predicted that the tidal wave would grow, with as many as 18,000 people seeking a hospital bed by the end of this month.

"If people would just stay home, we could end this in two weeks," he added, reinforcing the thinking behind the decision taken by Conte, the prime minister, to lock down the entire nation.

Massimo Galli, director of infectious diseases at the Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan, said there are insufficient beds to cope with demand.

"I am very concerned," he told Reuters. "The pressure on hospitals in Lombardy is enormous. I am very, very worried about the impact the virus will have on our health system."