Photo/Illutration Police officers and soldiers check passengers leaving from Milan's main train station in Italy on March 9. Italy took a page from China's playbook, attempting to lock down 16 million people--more than a quarter of its population--for nearly a month to halt the spread of the new coronavirus across Europe. (AP Photo)

The government is set to ban entry of foreigners to Japan who have visited northern Italy and San Marino within the past two weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

It is also eyeing an expansion of its ban on locations in Iran.  

The ban is expected to be approved at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on March 10. 

Italy's Lombardy province, which contains Milan, the country's second largest city, and other heavily coronavirus-hit provinces of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Piedmont, and Veneto will be covered under the ban.

It will be the first time Japan has added a European country to its list of nations denied entry to fight the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, a pneumonia-like disease.

Japan has been ramping up measures to restrict the entry of foreigners since February based on the immigration control law.

Currently, travelers who have visited the Chinese provinces of Hubei, where the coronavirus outbreak began, and Zhejiang, are banned from entering Japan, as are those who have been to parts of South Korea and Iran.

In Japan, 1,218 people have been confirmed infected with the new coronavirus as of March 9.

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