Over the past week, a number of European governments have urged their citizens to take coronavirus seriously by imposing strict limits on movement outside the home. The question now is how governments can actually enforce those rules, with so many people seemingly willing to break them.

Different European governments have devised different answers to that question, with no solution proved to be entirely effective.

Italy — with more deaths caused by covid-19 than anywhere in the world, including at least 793 since Friday — has been struggling to enforce its lockdown with police checks and has already called in military forces in two regions: Campania and Sicily. On Friday, Italy’s Interior Ministry reported that it still cited a record total of 9,600 people on Thursday for violating the terms of the lockdown.

Spanish police added extra patrols and slapped fines on people ignoring the orders to mostly stay at home. The “time has come to implement fully the state of alert,” said a statement Friday from Spain’s Interior Ministry.

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[Source: Washington Post]