Sylvia Poggioli

Italian army trucks are taking coffins of Coronavirus victims from overwhelmed funeral homes — as doctors treating COVID-19 patients issue urgent pleas for help.

The death toll from the virus grew by nearly 800 to a total of 4,825, officials announced Saturday.

The country has universal health care. But now, fighting tens of thousands of coronavirus cases, Italian hospitals and medical staff are overwhelmed, prompting anguished debate.

Seven years after Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis, the first non-European pontiff is under attack from traditionalists who think he's leading Catholics astray.

Life in Rome is turned upside down, writes NPR's Sylvia Poggioli: "Even for someone who has reported from war zones, it's unnerving ... like being suspended between the Dark Ages and a sci-fi future."

Coronavirus has brought life in Italy to a standstill. The only sounds on the streets these days are birds, church bells — and songs for healthcare workers from Italians on their apartment balconies.

As the U.S. manages the coronavirus, NPR's Rachel Martin talks to three NPR correspondents in some hard-hit countries: China, South Korea and Italy, to ask what lessons the U.S. should learn.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday declared the entire country a "red zone," meaning people should stay home except for work and emergencies.

Italy is resorting to drastic measures to stop the spread of coronavirus. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly also speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Eric Sylvers, who is in Milan.

The government of Italy has imposed a lockdown on its northern region, including the cities of Milan and Venice. More than 5,800 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 233 have died.

Almost 200 people have died from COVID-19 in Italy and over 4,000 have tested positive. Though the capital is far from the epicenter in the north, its famed tourist sites are nearly empty.

Rome is not the center of Italy's coronavirus outbreak, but tourists are staying clear of the city's sights, schools are shut down and Romans are having groceries delivered.

With more than 2,000 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed and 79 deaths, Italian officials are considering shutting down all schools and universities, and cancelling public events nationwide.

After decades of pressure from historians and Jewish groups, the Vatican on Monday began allowing scholars to access the archives of Pope Pius XII, who remained publicly silent during the Holocaust.

Now that the Vatican has opened the archives, scholars hope the documents will shed light on ties among the Vatican, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy — and on the Vatican's role in the Cold War.

With 228 cases reported, Italian officials are scrambling to contain Europe's first major outbreak of the coronavirus. Ten towns were locked down in a northern region of the country.

The Coronavirus is spreading, and worries are intensifying in three more hot spots: Italy, Iran and South Korea. The World Health Organization says the window to contain it is narrowing.

Pope Francis has called for "bold proposals" to meet the needs of Catholics in the Amazon, but they do not explicitly include allowing married priests in remote regions with a shortage of clergy.

"If you sleep on the ground covered in cardboard and have to wake up at 5 a.m. before the police come to shove you away, and then you find a place like this, what more do you want?" a new guest says.

In Rome, behind Saint Peter's Square, there's an impressive palace that the Vatican owns. Some church officials wanted to turn it into a money-making enterprise, but Pope Francis had other ideas.