Coronavirus: 11 municipalities in northern Italy close their public places

Text by: RFI Follow

The public places of eleven cities of the north of Italy were closed this Friday for a week, after the discovery of 16 new cases tested positive for the new coronavirus, including at least six confirmed.

Publicity

Bars, schools, libraries, churches, stadiums ... Public places in eleven cities in northern Italy are now closed for a week. The measure also affects town halls, shops, sports halls, as well as the numerous carnival parades organized at this time of the year.

The decision was taken by the Ministry of Health after a first Italian indigenous outbreak of coronavirus was identified in Codogno, in the province of Lodi, about 60 km south-east of Milan. " We are basically asking residents to stay at home in areas affected by the epidemic, " said Health Minister Roberto Speranza during a press conference in Rome with representatives from the Lombardy region. More than 50,000 people are now in semi-containment at home.

The first case of Codogno, a 38-year-old Italian, an executive at Unilever, has been hospitalized since Wednesday in intensive care. This Friday, the Minister of Health announced that 14 people had tested positive in Lombardy, all around Codogno, including five doctors who had treated this 38-year-old man. All have not yet taken the second confirmatory test.

The Lombardy health authorities have not identified with certainty the person at the origin of the epidemic, but it could be an Italian returned from China in January who would have dined several times with the framework of at Unilever.

In Veneto, the president of the region Luca Zaia, spoke of two " suspected cases " of 78 and 67 years old, including one person " in critical condition " and "placed in intensive care", in Vo 'Euganeo, town near Padua practically quarantined. Even if the Ministry of Health indicated that these cases were not confirmed as due to the new coronavirus.

Italy has so far had only three cases of coronavirus, all contracted outside the country and treated in Rome, among which two Chinese tourists who were placed at one time in intensive therapy, but whose condition has improved significantly. days. In addition, an Italian infected with the new coronavirus, who was on the cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan, is being repatriated with a group of other Italian passengers.

(With AFP )

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