But that didn't stop the virus from spreading across the region.

CBS News foreign correspondent Charlie Daggett joins us now from Rome.

So, Charlie, what is the government doing to slow down the spread?

Well, blood, first of all, whatever they're doing isn't enough because we've seen this huge leap over the past 24 hours that numbers now stand at 3900 nearly 3900 people.

In 3900 cases, 148 people have died, and those are the largest surges that we've seen since this outbreak began.

Behind me were the one of, well, the most important hospital.

When it comes to infectious diseases, you can see you may be able to see just in the background those silver tents, right?

So that is where they set up a triage where they can have patients who suspect that they may be suffering from this virus.

And there you will see them standing up there.

We spoke to them earlier.

They're worried, so they go into a triage area, so if they are infected with the virus, they're not going to spread that contagion to the rest of hospital.

Now this is just here in Rome.

It's now everywhere in Italy, where you will see it.

Most thes triage tents are up in the north, there, everywhere and again.

This is one of the things that they're doing among several extreme measures.

What might be considered extreme that closed down all the schools and universities across the country.

They're actually telling Italians to keep three feet away from one another, which, of course, is kind of culturally sensitive in a place where they were known to, you know, express their affection to one another.

No more hugging, no more kissing, no more big crowds, big sporting events here.

You know, like the soccer stadiums.

The events is still taking place, but they're taking place behind closed doors, so there are no crowds.

And now imagine if that were happening, like the NFL or any basketball games.

That's how intense the situation he is here, in terms of trying to do whatever they can to mitigate the spread of this virus.

It's so interesting watching that the group of that has gathered behind you.

I think it's about six people.

They're all talking very close to each other, all of them wearing masks.

You notice that?

So, uh, the Vatican just reported its first case of the Corona virus inside the walls of the Vatican.

What can you tell us about that?

Well, you know, that's huge.

It's potentially huge.

First of all we have are independent confirmation that that's that's true.

The information is correct and accurate.

It's concerning for a couple of reasons, first of all, in any sort of confined environment reason that you have schools.

Iran's prisons have been emptied out.

That is where you're going tohave.

The transmission or community spread is going to be at its most intense, and that's a huge concern.

In addition to that, what is the Vatican now do in terms of protocol?

They're following the Italian health minister's advice in the World Health Organization trying to keep these crowds down.

But I think what we're really going to see here is what this means in terms of the papal address, what it means in terms of people congregating.

You know, the pope was seen coffee a couple of days ago and he had to cancel some events, So this is definitely gonna have have an impact in terms of what it's meant.

Officially, all we know from the Vatican is it is official that there has been a Corona virus case, what this means in terms of their protocol, what they do from future.

That hasn't been decided yet, or if it has, it hasn't been shared with the public.

So last week, way just actually just showed video and photos of of the pope coughing during his public outings.

Vatican says he's not is suffering from a coal and not the Corona virus.

Given that there's now a case in the Vatican, what steps are being taken to protect the pope during the separate?

Because, Charlie, as you know, you may have heard that there are also discussions in the United States right now about all three of the men running for president, including President Trump and Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

People are starting to wonder because they are in that demo, of which most people have been infected, severely vulnerable.

He is an elderly gentleman.

And, of course, as soon as the CO the pope started coughing, you know, we were here.

Everybody says, Oh my goodness, it's the pope.

He's an old man.

He spends lots of time with the public.

And indeed, you know, American politicians.

They fall into that same sort of, uh, group way.

We're all waiting there.

We went to the Angelus on Sunday to see, First of all, if he was going to show up, he did.

He had to stop to cough.

A couple of times.

The Vatican has been very clear.

He is suffering from a pretty bad cold.

Not the crew, the virus.

But having said that, he decided not to go on this annual retreat on Sunday, which is kind of a big deal.

I mean, obviously, I guess everything is a big deal when you're the pope.

But this this is one of the things that he normally would be going, too.

But yes, in a normal environment, we wouldn't have even paying attention to something like this.

But when you have politicians who are going to these large gatherings and they fall into that sort of vulnerable community, the the older elderly set somebody like the pope.

Of course, we're gonna pay more attention to that.

It doesn't quite feel like Italy is a hot spot, but it is, and it's now expanded all over Italy.

Now it's expanded to the Vatican.

You know, it would just be ignorant, naive to believe that certain people are going to be immune to that.

The elderly population is the most vulnerable group, and that is what we've seen here in terms of numbers, almost everybody who's actually the victims of this anyway, or the people that are intensive care or almost all elderly.

And so we're also learning now that the UK reported its first death on the Corona virus on Thursday, or European leaders working together to combat the spread between countries, well, could could the Corona virus be the one thing that unifies you're Maybe there's certainly been there have certainly been calls in Italy that more must be done.

There are concerns, and I have to tell you, you know, from being here for the past week or so and living in the UK when you start hearing about these cases that are popping up, we know community spread.

I know that's a discussion that's happening in the United States.

It's happening in individual countries now, but they're so much blame happening in Italy.

The Brits have been saying, Oh, the people that have got this in the UK They came from Italy.

The Germans would say, the people that got this in Germany, they came from Italy.

Well, now it's starting to have this community spread, and it's happening within the zone countries.

And yes, this is absolutely a priority, not just in terms of people speaking to one another and the movement between countries.

But what could be done?

I mean, they're even delivering people like truck drivers is saying, Uh, yeah, I'm not really happy with going to Italy and others that are saying we're not really happy with deliveries that coming from Italy much a cz we saw in China.

So, yes, certainly something has to move forward.

And Italian health ministers here saying, this is a pan European problem now.

All right, Charlie, thank you very much.