Italy convenes urgent talks as virus spreads
Coronavirus spread southwards in Italy south on Tuesday to Tuscany and Sicily as the civilprotection agency reported a surge in the number of infected people and Rome convened emergency talks.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has blamed poor management in a hospital in the country’s north for the outbreak.
The virus has caused at least seven deaths in Italy so far and infected the largest number of people in Europe.
Tuscany reported its first two cases, including one in the tourist destination of Florence, while Sicily had one: a woman tourist from the worst-hit Lombardy region, where 212 people have tested positive.
The tourist in Sicily, who had been staying in a hotel in Palermo, tested positive on the first swab, but was awaiting the definitive result from Italy’s institute of infectious diseases, said civil-protection agency chief Angelo Borrelli.
Health ministers of neighbouring countries were to meet in Rome as the number of confirmed infections jumped to 283, with more than 50 new cases reported since Monday. The EU’s health commissioner and other international health officials were also expected in the Italian capital on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people were confined to their rooms at a Tenerife hotel after an Italian tourist was admitted at a hospital for suspected coronavirus, said health officials in the Canary Islands.
BEHIND CLOSED GATES
While no neighbouring country has closed its borders with Italy, several governments have announced additional measures for travellers arriving from Italy, in particular from the two northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
These measures range from medical screening to recommendations to self-isolate.
Several matches in Italian Serie A and the Europa League will be played behind closed gates to combat the spread of the disease.
Production of the latest Mission: Impossible film starring Tom Cruise in Venice has been stopped.
The main centre of infection in Italy has been Codogno, a town of 15,000 people about 60km south of Milan. Codogno and several other towns in northern Italy have been placed under quarantine in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.
The 38-year-old man dubbed “Patient One” by Italian media was admitted to hospital last Wednesday in Codogno.
It is suspected that a large number of the cases in the worst-hit region of Lombardy can be traced back to this “Patient One”.
His heavily pregnant wife, several doctors, staff and patients at the hospital are thought to have caught the virus from him.
As well as the towns placed under quarantine, further wideranging measures have affected tens of millions of inhabitants in the north of Italy. Schools have been closed and cultural and sporting events cancelled.
Elsewhere in the country officials have also been recommending precautionary measures.
In Calabria in the south, bishops have asked their worshippers not to make the sign of peace (also known as the kiss of peace) during mass, media reported.
All seven Italian fatalities were either old or had pre-existing medical conditions.