Italy’s measures to halt the coronavirus contagion do not seem to be working and it should change its strategy by setting up centres to separate people with suspected symptoms from their families, a prominent Italian microbiologist says.

Italy, which has suffered the world’s highest death toll from coronavirus, has been in nationwide lockdown for about three weeks, but in the past three days new infections have continued at between 5000 and 6000 per day.

The highest daily death toll since the outbreak began on 21 February was registered on Friday, with 919 fatalities, and the tally was only slightly lower in the following two days.

Professor Andrea Crisanti, professor of microbiology at Padua University, said in an interview with Radio Capital that many of these new cases were probably people who were being infected by family members at home.