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Italian authorities, grappling with the worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus outside Asia, have taken drastic action to contain its spread as the country reported on Monday its sixth death.
Since two clusters were identified last week in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, around 219 people have caught the virus, including six who died from the Covid-19 disease caused by it.
“We have to adopt drastic measures,” Veneto’s Regional President Luca Zaia told reporters on Sunday, indicating that he would cancel all public events, including Venice’s famous carnival.
As he spoke, people were still revelling on St Mark’s Square. Zaia indicated that the ban would be enforced at the end of the day’s carnival programme, originally due to last until Tuesday.
Second coronavirus death sparks fears, lockdown in Italian towns
The Veneto president also closed all museums and schools, markets and fairs in a region that counts 5 million inhabitants and is one of Italy’s industrial engines.
“It’s the last thing the president of a region would like to sign, but there are no alternatives,” Zaia said.
Similar anti-contagion measures were taken in Lombardy, home to 10 million people and comprising Milan, Italy’s business and fashion capital. Bars, clubs and cinemas were shut, but not restaurants.


Milan’s La Scala, one of world’s leading opera houses, suspended performances, and a Giorgio Armani event for the city’s fashion week was live-streamed from an empty theatre.
Universities were closed in several parts of northern Italy.
The Civil Protection Agency gave the total number of infected as 219, including the six deaths – the most confirmed cases of any country in Europe.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said he would talk to his European counterparts soon to discuss how best to cope with a possible epidemic in Europe.
“Tonight, there is no epidemic in France. But there is a problematic situation at the door, in Italy, that we are watching with great attention,” Veran told a news conference.
On Saturday night, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had ruled out reintroducing border controls with European neighbours, in suspension of the EU’s Schengen rules.
However, neighbouring Austria suspended rail traffic on a key route from Italy for hours on Sunday because of two German women with fever who were riding a train from Venice to Germany via Austria.
While Austrian authorities scrambled to stop the country’s possible first coronavirus import, hundreds of passengers were stranded on the Brenner mountain pass that separates Italy and Austria’s Tyrol province.

After the women tested negative for the virus, the passengers were allowed to travel on shortly before midnight.
Rail traffic between Italy and Germany was expected to return to normal on Monday morning, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn railways said.
In Austria’s Carinthia province, Governor Peter Kaiser told the population to avoid travelling to Italy’s virus-affected regions for the time being.
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In Switzerland, the canton of Ticino announced that its hospitals would isolate and test all patients with Covid-19-type symptoms, even if they have no known links with China or with other infected patients.
Ticino borders Lombardy. Some 68,000 people commute from Italy to Ticino for work every day.
Italian Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri told the SkyTG24 news channel that outbreak numbers were likely to rise further. “I expect more cases,” he said. “It’s clear that we will have more.”

Authorities were still searching for the so-called patient zero, meaning the person or persons who brought the China-originated virus to northern Italy has yet to be found.
In response to the crisis, the government decided Saturday night to block access to around a dozen towns at the centre of the outbreak, forcibly confining tens of thousands of people.
“It’s like a wartime situation,” a man from Casalpusterlengo, one of the affected Lombardy towns, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
“Shops are closed, only supermarkets are open for a few hours, they let us in in batches, but they have run out of meat and they don’t know when they will get more,” he said.
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The government also called off all Sunday sports events in Lombardy and Veneto, including three Serie A football games.
According to a Sunday bulletin from the World Health Organisation (WHO), no other non-Asian country has reported more Covid-19 cases than Italy.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said it would assess the risk posed by the new clusters in Italy to other EU countries.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Italy takes ‘drastic’ action as six die, infections surge

A policewoman wearing a protective mask stands next to carnival revellers at Venice Carnival, which the last two days of, as well as Sunday night's festivities, were cancelled. Photo: Reuters

epa08241289 Guests wear face masks to protect against coronavirus upon arrival to attend the Dolce and Gabbana show during the Milan Fashion Week, Milan, Italy, 23 February 2020. The disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has so far killed more than 2,000 people, with over 75,000 infected worldwide, mostly in China. The Fall-Winter 2020/2021 Women's collections are presented at the Milano Moda Donna from 18 to 24 February 2020. EPA-EFE/MATTEO BAZZI

Tourists wearing sanitary masks walk in downtown Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. In Lombardy, the hardest-hit region with 90 cases Coronavirus infections, schools and universities were ordered to stay closed in the coming days, and sporting events were canceled. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

epa08242097 Empty shelves at Esselunga supermarket as people stockpile due to the fear of the new coronavirus, in Milan, Italy, 23 February 2020. Two deaths from the novel coronavirus sparked fears throughout northern Italy as about 50,000 people were poised for a weeks-long lockdown imposed by authorities trying to halt a further increase in infections. Italy on 21 February became the first country in Europe to report the death of one of its own nationals from the virus, triggering travel restrictions on about a dozen towns where the number of people contaminated has continued to rise. EPA-EFE/ANDREA CANALI

A man wearing a protective face mask in Casalpusterlengo, one of the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown because of the virus outbreak. Photo: EPA

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Deaths and steadily rising number of cases have prompted a series of security measures
Spread of virus has disrupted high profile events including Milan fashion Week and the Venice Carnival



Venice ended its carnival early and Fashion Week in Milan restricted public access after Italian authorities cancelled all public events in both cities to contain outbreak.


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Coronavirus: Italy takes ‘drastic’ action as six die, infections surge

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Deaths and steadily rising number of cases have prompted a series of security measures Spread of virus has disrupted high profile events including Milan fashion Week and the Venice Carnival

Deaths and steadily rising number of cases have prompted a series of security measures

Spread of virus has disrupted high profile events including Milan fashion Week and the Venice Carnival