Italy quarantines a dozen towns in coronavirus outbreak
Number of cases tops 100 as Milan closes schools in Europe’s biggest incident
The Italian government has placed a dozen towns in the north of the country under emergency quarantine after the number of reported coronavirus infections topped 100 on Sunday, in the largest outbreak of the virus so far in Europe.
Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Saturday that people should not leave affected towns in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto unless they had special permission; public gatherings and events were suspended and some schools and universities will close.
Among the towns in Lombardy affected are Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda and Casalpusterlengo. Residents in all three towns, which lie to the south-east of Milan, were told to stay indoors on Friday after six coronavirus cases were diagnosed.
On Sunday the Italian authorities announced that the total infection count had reached 132; 89 of the cases are located in Lombardy where two elderly people have died in the outbreak.
Other cases include 24 in Veneto, two in Emilia-Romagna and one reported case each in Lazio and Piedmont. Ansa, the Italian newswire, reported on Sunday that there were suspected but unconfirmed cases in Milan and the region of Umbria.
The special measures have been enforced across an area with a population of about 50,000 people. Residents have been instructed by the Italian government to stay in their homes and the country’s civil protection agency has passed an emergency decree. Those who break the instruction risk fines or imprisonment.
Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said on Sunday that he had requested all schools in the city to shut for a week, and several large Italian companies, including the bank UniCredit, have instructed employees in the affected towns to not come into work.
Several Serie A football fixtures, including Inter Milan’s match against Sampdoria, have been suspended.
Fashion designer Armani said it would hold an empty show in Milan on Sunday, the final day of the city’s fashion week; the event will instead be livestreamed online. MIDO, the world’s largest eyewear trade fair, which is due to take place in Milan at the end of February, said it was suspending the event until June as a result of the outbreak.
Authorities in Veneto were reported to be considering suspending the Venice Carnival, which is currently taking place.
Mr Conte said Italy had adopted “rigorous and meticulous controls” after two Italian citizens in their late seventies died from the infection.
Luca Zaia, regional governor of Veneto, said the rapid spread of the virus showed that local-to-local transmission had occurred and it would no longer be sufficient to try to isolate travellers from China to stem the outbreak.
Giulio Gallera, a Lombardy councillor for welfare, tried to calm worried locals.
“The message we want to give is that in the area of the outbreak, the measures taken are efficient and positive,” he told reporters. “The aim is to contain the situation as much as possible.”