The country has decided to lock off a number of cities from the outside world. As a result of this measure, around 50,000 people living in those areas can no longer go anywhere.
Lombardy affected
Conte announced the emergency measures after the number of illnesses suddenly increased sharply in the last two days. So far there are around 100 infections: two people have died from the effects of the disease.
Schools and a large proportion of the stores are closed in ten municipalities in the Lombardy region. Major events such as church services, carnival celebrations and sports competitions are prohibited.
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A number of football matches from today’s Serie A have also been canceled. The police, and possibly also the army, have been given the power to act if someone does not follow the measures.
2300 dead
Italy accounts for the vast majority of infected people in Europe. In Germany, 16 cases were reported, in France 12. In Paris, a Chinese tourist died of Covid-19 last weekend.
In China, more than 76,000 people have been affected by the virus and more than 2,300 residents have died. The hardest hit is the Hubei province where Covid-19 broke out in the metropolis of Wuhan in December.
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The outbreak began in Codogno, a city southeast of Milan. The first patient here is a 38-year-old man. He fell ill after meeting a man who had returned from China on January 21. Strikingly, this traveler had no symptoms.
Condition stable
The 38-year-old man works in a Unilever factory, near Codogno. More than a hundred of his colleagues are now being quarantined and tested. The man – patient 1 – is in the hospital. His condition is stable.
Luca Zaia, the president of the Veneto region, compares the corona virus with the normal flu. “You can get it from anyone.”
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In the meantime, it is silent in Codogno. Empty streets, dense shops and frightened residents: “It has become a ghost town. This is terrible for us,” says a woman who was still on the street.
“People are locked up in their houses. There is no one left on the street,” says the woman, who calls herself Paola, near the train station in Codogno. No one sold tickets there and no people were waiting for trains last night.
Mouth masks sold out
The pharmacy in the center is still open by order of the authorities, but mouth masks have long been sold out. The owner says that they mainly came from China. “They now keep them themselves. They need them,” says Rosa Cavalli. Her customers mainly buy bleach, alcohol and disinfectants.
“We’re trying to stay calm because it’s so easy to panic in situations like this,” says another Codogno resident. She had left her house to buy food. “I’m a bit scared because we can all get infected. I work in a restaurant and I have a lot of contact with people.”
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