Saturday February 22, 2020
–
The surprisingly rapid spread of the corona virus is causing the government in Italy to take drastic measures. The affected cities in the north of the country are being sealed off. Two Serie A football games are canceled, the Venice Carnival is also threatened with the end.
The Italian government wants to stop the spread of the corona virus in the north of the country and seal off the most affected cities. This was announced by the government in Rome. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced this emergency measure after crisis talks with the country’s civil protection authority. “The goal is to protect the health of the Italian population.” In the areas considered to be epidemic centers, residents are not allowed to enter or exit, Conte said. People could only move with “special exemptions”.
In Italy, Sars-CoV-2 has now been detected in more than 79 people, two people died, according to local authorities. The incised are spread across Lombardy, Veneto and the Piedmont region. The big outbreak in Lombardy goes back to a 38-year-old who was seriously ill in the clinic in the small town of Codogno and tested positive for the pathogen on Thursday.
In addition, all sporting events in Lombardy and Veneto were canceled for Sunday. Two Serie A games between Inter Milan and Sampdoria Genoa and between Hellas Verona and Cagliari Calcio are also affected.
There are now considerations to end the Venice Carnival, which runs until February 25th. Two deaths have been linked to the virus. Sars-CoV-2 was posthumously proven in a 77-year-old from Lombardy who died on Thursday that she was now listed as a Covid-19 fatality, even if it is unclear exactly what she died of, said the Lombardy health commissioner, Giulio Gallera, With. A 78-year-old from Veneto also believes that the lung disease is believed to be the cause of death, according to a spokesman for the Italian civil defense. The pathogen was found among other things in the woman and a daughter of the man who died on Friday.
In a dozen Lombardy municipalities, schools and most of the shops had previously been temporarily closed. Around 50,000 residents are encouraged to stay at home if possible. Major events such as services, carnivals and sports events were prohibited. Cities close to the affected region such as Cremona and Piacenza also closed schools and canceled major events. In Veneto – where the municipality of Vo near Padua is affected – measures have been taken to prevent the virus from spreading further.
The region’s universities should close next week, the region’s president, Luca Zaia, said. It is still being discussed whether the Venice Carnival, which actually lasts until Tuesday, will be ended prematurely. Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met for crisis talks with the country’s civil protection agency.
Where the seriously ill 38-year-old became infected in Codogno, to which all cases in Lombardy go, was initially unclear. The suspicion that he might have been infected by a friend who had recently returned from China was not confirmed: Tests had shown that this man was never infected with the virus, it was said in the evening. For the outbreak in Veneto, Chinese businessmen working there were suspected to have been brought in. The case in Piedmont is due to contacts with infected people in Lombardy. Before the two current outbreaks, only three infections were recorded in Italy.
More infected people in South Korea and China
The situation is also becoming more acute on the Korean peninsula: As the health authorities announced on Saturday, 229 further infections with Sars-CoV-2 were detected in South Korea within one day. The number of cases recorded rose to 433. No other country outside of China, where Covid-19 broke out in December, has reported more infections so far.
In China, the number of infections recorded in the official statistics on Saturday was a good 76,000, and more than 2,300 people died of the lung disease. Experts assume that the number of unreported cases in the People’s Republic is much higher. By far the largest number of deaths and infections continue to be reported from the particularly severely affected province of Hubei, where Covid-19 had broken out in the million-strong city of Wuhan in December.
– ,
