Morocco airline suspends flights to Venice, Milan

RABAT - Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) said on Sunday it has suspended flights to Italy's Venice and Milan, currently under lockdown by Italian authorities due to a coronavirus outbreak.

Flights to the two cities are planned to resume on April 8, RAM said in a statement.

Earlier in January, the Moroccan airline suspended direct flights to Beijing.

So far, Morocco tested 57 people for the coronavirus, with two testing positive.

The country banned fans from all football matches and cancelled many economic, sports and cultural events involving foreign travellers as authorities continue to implement precautionary measures at entry points and hospitals to prevent the spread of the virus.

Italy on Sunday recorded the second-highest coronavirus toll in the world, after reporting a sharp jump in deaths and overtaking South Korea on infections.

The number of fatalities nearly tripled, rising from 133 to 366 Sunday, according to the civil protection agency, with most deaths occurring in the hard-hit Lombardy region in Italy's wealthy north.

The country now has the most deaths of any country outside China, and the second-most COVID-19 infections in the world, after the number of cases rose by a single-day record of 1,492 to 7,375.