Italian president calls for responsibility and unity as Italy battles Coronavirus outbreak.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella has called for "responsibility" in the face of the Coronavirus emergency, urging Italians to "follow carefully" the official guidelines regarding changes to lifestyle and daily habits.

"Italy is going through a particularly challenging time and is facing it dutifully with full transparency and completeness of information", the president said in his televised address.

"We are a great modern country"- said Mattarella - "we have an excellent national health system, which is operating with the effectiveness and extraordinary self-sacrifice of its staff."

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Urging Italians to "absolutely avoid unmotivated and often counterproductive states of anxiety", the president said that Italy would "overcome" the crisis.

Mattarella concluded his address by saying: "We must, and can, have confidence in Italy."

The president's intervention followed the government's announcement of a €7.5 billion rescue package to deal with the economic impact of Italy's Coronavirus outbreak.The measure comes as the number of deaths related to Coronavirus in Italy reaches 148.

The total number of cases in Italy since the outbreak began is now more than 3,800.

This figure includes the deceased as well as the 414 patients who have recovered so far.

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Official information

For all official information relating to Coronavirus in Italy see Italian health ministry website.