“The contagiousness of this virus is very strong and pretty virulent,” Lombardy’s health chief Giulio Gallera told a press conference on Saturday.

But he cautioned: “Today it’s not a pandemic.”

He said health authorities had identified “patient number one”, a 38-year-old man in intensive care in Codogno.

All cases in the region are connected to him, Gallera said, whether medical workers, relatives or friends, he said. The man’s wife has also tested positive for the virus.

Italian media have reported that the man dined in January with a friend who had returned from China, but the friend has since tested negative for the virus.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed his sympathies for the two deaths and said he had called an emergency meeting, as more than 50,000 people from about a dozen towns in two northern regions were asked to stay at home by the local authorities.

The government was considering “extraordinary measures” to fight the onslaught of new cases, Conte said on Facebook.

More than 50,000 people from about a dozen towns in the two northern regions were asked to stay at home by the local authorities.

In Codogno, streets were mostly deserted and few shops were open after the mayor put the town of 15,000 on temporary lockdown on Friday.

One man in the street, who gave his name as Alberto, said there was a “muffled silence” in town.

“I don’t have a mask because they ran out in the pharmacy, but I’m taking precautions,” said the 68-year-old.

“When I meet someone, I talk to them keeping my distance, or I take the long way around to get home so I don’t run into anyone.”

“No entry” read the sign outside Codogno’s emergency room.

Only a bakery and a few businesses were open, with many shops posting signs saying they were closed due to the lockdown, which could last as long as five days.

In the nearby region of Veneto, a 78-year-old retired bricklayer from the Padua area died on Friday, becoming the first local person in Europe to die from what has been named Covid-19 by the World Health Organisation.

Italy’s health minister said the man, Adriano Trevisan, had been admitted to hospital 10 days earlier for an unrelated health issue.

How Chinatowns are coping with the coronavirus fallout

The president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, had told RaiNews 24 earlier Saturday that none of those infected with the virus in the region had been in contact with anyone who had recently arrived from China.

Two Chinese tourists are still being treated for the virus in isolation in Rome. A third man who was also quarantined has since recovered, but is still being held at the same hospital, the Spallanzani Institute in Rome.

In the areas under lockdown in northern Italy, public activities such as carnival celebrations, church masses and sporting events have been banned for up to a week.

In the town of Casalpusterlegno, a hoarding instructed residents “to stay in your own homes”.

In most towns, bars, restaurants and libraries have been closed, and in the small city of Cremona, about 25 minutes east of Codogno, school has been cancelled.

Separately on Saturday, 19 Italians who spent more than two weeks quarantined on a virus-stricken cruise liner in Japan landed at Rome’s military Pratica di Mare airport. They had been stranded on the Diamond Princess since February 5.

Following the first health checks and decontamination process, the passengers were transferred to the military campus of Cecchignola where they will spend a 14-day isolation period.

Since December, Covid-19 has killed more than 2,200 people in China, the epidemic’s epicentre.

Elsewhere in the world, it has killed over a dozen people and spread across some 27 countries and territories. Last Sunday, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died from the new coronavirus in France.