Italian doctors' guilds FNOMCEO calls for immediate national lockdown to avert "dramatic" situation in a month's time.

"Total lockdown, across the country."

This call, in light of the numbers of people being admitted to hospital and intensive care due to covid-19, comes from the national federation of doctors' guilds FNOMCEO.

The statement was posted last night on the Facebook page of the federation whose president Filippo Anelli repeated the message subsequently on state radio broadcaster RAI.

Anelli said that based on the data of the last week as a trend, and without predicting further increases, the situation in a month will be "dramatic and therefore we must resort immediately to a total closure."

• Covid-19: Italy declares red and orange zones under new restrictions

"Either we stop the virus or it will stop us because the signs tell us that the system is not holding up and even the current yellow regions will soon find themselves in the same conditions as the worst-hit areas " - Anelli told Italian news agency ANSA - "With the current average, in a month we will have a further 10,000 deaths."

Anelli is set to outline Italy's coronavirus situation on RaiNews24 between 10.00 and 10.30 this morning, 9 November.

• Latest covid-19 news in Italy

On the evening of Sunday 8 November Italy registered 32,616 new covid-19 cases over the previous 24 hours (7,195 fewer than Saturday), with 331 coronavirus-related deaths (94 fewer than the day before).

There were 191,144 new swab tests carried out, about 40,000 fewer than Saturday, according to the latest data released by Italy's health ministry.

For full information regarding the covid-19 situation in Italy see the health ministry website.

Photo ANSA