“From this evening, we plan to stop carnival and all sporting activities until March 1,” Veneto’s regional president, Luca Zaia, said on national television while announcing a series of measures to combat the spread of the virus.
The famous carnival was due to close on Tuesday after opening on February 8.
“All private and public gatherings” must be avoided, Zaia said, adding that all schools will also be closed until March 1.
Zaia said the “draconian measures” were driven by the need to avoid problems after the Venice region reported Italy’s first local coronavirus death on Friday.
Italian authorities have since reported 152 confirmed cases, including two dead, making it the worst affected country outside Asia.
In other reports, Zaia said he was concerned that the source of the outbreak in the region has still not been found, with tests of eight Chinese people who had been to the same bar as the first victim producing no information.
“That suggests that the virus is much wider spread than we thought,” he added.
Zaia, in office for 10 years, said the crisis was the most serious that he’d ever had to manage.
Italian authorities postponed three Serie A football matches on Sunday amid the crisis.
The matches between title-chasing Inter Milan and Sampdoria, Atalanta and Sassuolo, and Hellas Verona and Cagliari have been pushed back to avoid the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, Milan Fashion Week events were undisrupted at the weekend.
“The [fashion] shows are going ahead calmly, there is no panic, there are no cases of contamination or suspicion of cases in Milan or in our sector for the moment and we hope that stays so,” Carlo Capasa, president of Italy’s National Fashion Chamber, said.
Many shows took place in empty rooms and were live-streamed around the world.
