Coronavirus: Italy declares state of emergency after two cases confirmed
- Rome has stopped all flights to and from China after two mainland tourists tested positive for the virus
- Sweden on Friday reported its first confirmed case of a patient diagnosed with coronavirus
.png?itok=xML2J2Ym)
The couple was being treated in isolation in Rome’s Spallanzani infectious diseases institute.
The state of emergency, a fairly common procedure after natural disasters like earthquakes or floods, gives regional authorities special powers and cuts red tape. It will last six months, the government said.
An initial five million euros (US$5.3 million) has been allocated to tackle the virus, according to Italian media.
Police sealed off the room where the couple had been staying at a hotel in the centre of the capital. Other Chinese tourists who had arrived in Italy as part of the same tour group were being tested for the virus.
A 42-year-old Romanian who had been working at the hotel was also admitted for tests, media reports said.
Two people in UK test positive for coronavirus
The couple reportedly arrived in Milan and then travelled to Rome, where they started showing symptoms on Wednesday.
“The patients are doing well, they’re young and it’s as if they have the flu,” said Giuseppe Ippolito of Spallanzani hospital.
“They will remain in isolation for a few days,” he told Italian radio.
“We’re almost certain there are no other infections,” he said.
“The virus isn’t contagious during incubation,” the doctor said.
Stockholm’s Public Health Agency said on Friday that a woman had tested positive for coronavirus and was being kept isolated at a hospital in southern Sweden.
The woman had visited Wuhan and experienced cough symptoms after she arrived in Sweden. She contacted a hospital in southern Sweden where she is being treated. She is not gravely ill, the agency said.
Italy’s civil aviation authority said all flights in the air before the suspension was declared were permitted to land, and passengers’ temperatures checked.
The planes were also permitted to take off again with passengers who had been scheduled for the return leg.
The Sars-like virus epidemic, which originated in the central Chinese city Wuhan, has so far killed 213 people and spread to at least 18 countries.
The World Health Organisation on Thursday declared it an international public health emergency.
Some 70 Italians still in Wuhan will likely be flown back on Monday, Italian media reported, before spending two weeks in quarantine.
