Rome (AFP)

The festivities of the Venice Carnival, which was due to end on Tuesday, are canceled from Sunday as well as all the sporting events of the area, announced on the television channel Sky TG24, the president of Veneto.

"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 virus.

The Venice Carnival, which started with a large parade on February 8, was to conclude on Tuesday.

Avoid "all private and public gatherings," said the governor of Veneto, who also decided "the closure of all schools until March 1 inclusive".

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

In other interviews, Mr. Zaia said he was "concerned" that the origin of the outbreak detected in his region had not been found. Tests were carried out on 8 Chinese nationals who attended the same bar as the first fatal case and gave nothing.

"This means that the virus is more ubiquitous than previously thought," said Zaia.

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 (far right, opposition to the government) of Matteo Salvini has always distinguished himself by a strong independence from the latter and is considered as 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 this 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.

© 2020 AFP