Coronavirus: the Venice Carnival ends before its end

Public rallies in the Veneto region will be canceled for a week due to the Covid-19 epidemic in northern Italy. This is what its president said on Sunday, February 23, thus bringing about the premature end of the Venice Carnival - started on February 8, it was due to end on Tuesday.

Fairytale Venice Carnival 🎭 pic.twitter.com/lbd6fKAV4E

"From this evening, we plan to stop Carnival and all sporting events until March 1," said Luca Zaia, announcing a series of measures to thwart the coronavirus. Avoid "all private and public gatherings," said the governor of Veneto, who also decided "the closure of all schools until March 1 inclusive".

The president of the Veneto region explained "these draconian measures" by the desire to "avoid future problems", while the Veneto recorded Friday evening the first death of an Italian - and first of a European - on the continent.

In other interviews, Luca Zaia expressed "concern" that the origin of the outbreak detected in her region has not been found. Tests were carried out on 8 Chinese nationals who attended the same bar as the first fatal case and gave nothing. "It means the virus is more ubiquitous than we thought," he said.

Italy, first country in Europe by the number of Covid-19 infections

The governor, who has run Veneto for 10 years and is very popular in his prosperous region, said that in his entire political career, "this is the most serious crisis he has ever had to deal with".

This member of the League (Italian far right) of Matteo Salvini has always stood out for his strong independence from the latter and is considered a pragmatic administrator.

The region has seen the number of cases of Covid-19 infections multiply in recent days, first around the village of Vo 'Euganeo, where a retired mason died on Friday. Since Sunday, cases have been reported in Venice itself. For the moment, the official figures are 25 cases, including 19 at Vo'Euganeo.

In total, the Civil Protection counted 132 cases of contamination in Italy, including two deaths and three cases imported from China, which makes Italy the first country in Europe by the number of infections.

With AFP

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