Italy is set to lock down its wealthiest and most populous region, which includes the financial capital Milan, as part of tough new measures expected to be approved on Saturday to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The new rules include telling people not to enter or leave Lombardy, which is home to some 10 million people, as well as 11 provinces in four of Italy’s 19 other regions, according to a draft decree. All museums, gyms, cultural centres, ski resorts and swimming pools will be shut in the targeted areas, according to the decree, which is due to come into force from Sunday.
The latest move to contain the outbreak comes after the number of infections jumped by more than 1,200 in the past 24 hours. So far, only a few limited areas of northern Italy, known as “red zones”, have been quarantined.
Leave will be cancelled for all healthcare workers, weddings, funerals and sports events suspended, and home working should be adopted as much as possible. The 11 provinces affected are those around Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini in the region of Emilia-Romagna – Venice, Padua and Treviso in the region of Veneto, Asti and Alessandria in Piedmont and the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the central region of Marche.
All schools and universities will be closed in Lombardy and the listed provinces until at least April 3rd. This week, the government announced schools all over the country would be closed until March 15.
Additional measures will apply across the country, with nightclubs closed as well as pubs and betting halls, and bans on parties and public events.
In the United States major US pro sports leagues are considering a ban on media and other non-necessary personnel from team locker rooms, according to sources.
The leagues are discussing adopting the proposal as a unified front, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations aren’t public.
The move stops short of some of the more extreme measures that some leagues worldwide have imposed, such as cancelling games or holding competitions with no spectators.
In France
Most big US sporting events are still going ahead as planned. The National Collegiate Athletic Association reaffirmed on Friday that games shouldn’t be cancelled, and Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia said this week the Masters tournament will be played next month.
In France virus cases jumped by 233, bringing the total to 949, according to director general of health Jerome Salomon. The number of deaths linked to the virus rose to 16 from 11, he added. A third member of France’s lower house has been diagnosed with the virus and hospitalised, the National Assembly said in a statement. The female MP has is receiving treatment in hospital. Another five politicians and one employee are being tested. French MPs are scheduled to break from March 9th through March 22nd, a recess unrelated to the outbreak.
In Saudi Arabia schools will shut for two weeks to avoid the spread of Covid-19, according to the state-run SPA news agency. Saudi education authorities will activate a remote education initiative, the agency added.
Italy’s total fatalities climbed to 233, with total cases increasing to 5,883, the third-highest in the world after China and South Korea. Civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said the biggest one-day jump in infections included more than 300 cases from a Lombardy region laboratory in the town of Brescia that had not been counted previously.
Italy is poised to announce sweeping measures including extending quarantine areas to deal with the virus after the death toll surged by about a third. The number of fatalities over the past two weeks has risen to 197, with infections growing by 78 to 4,636, the fourth-highest after China, South Korea and Iran. One case was diagnosed in the Vatican. Nicola Zingaretti, the head of the country’s democratic party, said on Facebook that he had tested positive for the virus.
Deaths in Italy rank second in the world, behind more than 3,000 in China, where the virus emerged more than two months ago.
In Portugal
In answer to a question, the governor advised elderly residents to avoid attending gatherings with large numbers of people.
Hungary’s government cancelled a rally planned for the March 15th national holiday in central Budapest. The number of confirmed coronavirus patients in Hungary has increased to five since the first infections were announced on Wednesday.
Officials from Sweden and Portugal warned that the outbreak will get worse. The epidemic “will have a major impact at the global level”, said Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Lisbon following a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart. “In Sweden, we do have plans for a worse scenario than we have today.”
In Portugal, “it’s highly probable that the number of infected people will continue to increase in the next few days,” said prime minister Antonio Costa. The government has so far confirmed 13 cases in the country.
Malta confirmed its first infection in a 12-year-old girl who had visited northern Italy, the Associated Press reported, citing health minister Chris Fearne. The girl was tested on Friday and results came back positive early Saturday. She is being held in an isolated section of Malta’s main public hospital, together with her immediate family.
In the Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has agreed to declare a state of national public health emergency after a local transmission of coronavirus, CNN Philippines reports, citing Senator Bong Go.
The Philippines health department reported the country’s sixth infection on Saturday, a 59-year-old woman who is married to the country’s fifth patient, health secretary Francisco Duque said at a press briefing in Manila. The woman is stable; her husband, 62, is in critical condition.
In Vietnam
Officials are bracing for an increase in cases as the government repatriates hundreds of citizens from affected areas abroad, including tourists, overseas workers and undocumented migrants.
All air crew and ground staff working on a Vietnam Airlines’ flight from London to Hanoi on March 1 are being quarantined after a passenger tested positive for coronavirus, according to a release from the country’s health minister.
The 26-year-old woman is the country’s 17th confirmed case, the first in Hanoi. City officials are trying to contact about 30 people who travelled in business class with the patient.
In Egypt about 150 tourists and local crew were quarantined on a cruise ship on the Nile river in the southern city of Luxor after 12 people tested positive for the virus, the Associated Press reported.
A tourist who had been on the same ship tested positive when she returned to Taiwan, according to the report. The World Health Organisation informed Egyptian authorities, who tested everyone on the ship.
In Iran
In Iran, a politician, Fatemeh Rahbar, died on Saturday two days after entering a coma, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The death toll from the virus increased to 145 as the number of diagnosed cases grew to 5,823, a health ministry spokesman said on state television.
Germany’s confirmed infections rose to 684 from 534 a day earlier, according to the Robert Koch Institute. Spain identified 93 new cases, bringing its total to 441.
In the United States Florida health officials confirmed the state’s first two deaths from coronavirus as well the first pair of cases in the Miami metropolitan area. The health agency for Seattle and King County said a man in his 60s died on Thursday, the ninth fatality associated with the outbreak at an area nursing home.
Nebraska and Kentucky reported their first cases. A person in Alameda County, California, who had been on a cruise ship last month tested positive for the virus, as did a Chicago school aide and a Starbucks barista at one of the coffee chain’s downtown Seattle stores.
G20 reacts
Meanwhile, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors said they are monitoring the evolution of new coronavirus, including its impact on markets and economic conditions. The officials said they are ready to take further action, including fiscal and monetary steps – as appropriate – to aid in the response, support the economy and maintain the resilience of the financial system.
“We reiterate our commitment to use all available policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, and safeguard against downside risks,” according to the statement.
At least 19 passengers and two crew members on the Grand Princess, currently off the coast of California, tested positive for the virus, vice-president Mike Pence has said.
Forty-six people on the ship have been tested, Mr Pence said at a news conference in Washington. The Grand Princess will be brought to shore and everyone will be tested and quarantined as needed. He said cruise ships “represent a unique challenge for health officials” and advised elderly Americans to carefully consider whether to to take cruises. – Reuters/Bloomberg