In the last 48 hours the number of cases of coronavirus in the Lombardy region in Italy has grown from six to over 40 victims of the virus.
The Lombardy region of Italy is now under voluntary quarantine. The Carnival (Mardi Gras) celebrations were cancelled in the area.
Five of the victims are doctors and nurses.
The “index person” who flew back to the region in late January from China still shows NO SIGNS of the deadly virus. Despite this the virus has spread to at least 40 people.
Conservative politician Matteo Salvini has called for Italy to close its borders.
Matteo Salvini: (translated) A prayer for the first Italian victim of #Coronavirus the and a thought to his family. Maybe now someone will have understood that it is necessary to close, control, armor, block, protect? #coronavirusitalIa
Una preghiera per la prima vittima italiana del #Coronavirus e un pensiero alla sua famiglia. Forse ora qualcuno avrà capito che è necessario chiudere, controllare, blindare, bloccare, proteggere? #coronavirusitalIa pic.twitter.com/jCQrY6xX5Z
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) February 21, 2020
ABC.es reported:
The coronavirus arrived in Italy. There are forty confirmed cases of infection, thirty-two of them located in the region of Lombardy, while the rest are located in other regions such as Veneto. One of the latter, a 78-year-old man, has died in Padua . In addition, this morning has confirmed the death of a woman in Lombardy. The Government called for calm, underlining that panic should not spread. But the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, asked the Executive to “close the confines” and assess the suspension of Schengen, the European Union treaty that abolished border controls.
The alarm has been like an unforeseen storm in a serene sky. Until the early hours of the afternoon the infected were only six in Lombardy. Shortly after, fifteen cases were confirmed, in total, in Lombardy – five of them are doctors and nurses – and two others in Padua (Veneto). This morning it was twenty-six. The governor of this region, Luca Zaia , has confirmed that these are two Italian elders of Vò Euganeo, hospitalized in Padua, one of them was in critical condition and finally died last night.
The first alarm was triggered in Lombardy, when an employee of the multinational Unilever de Casalpusterlengo (Lodi), Mattia YM, 38, who is in serious conditions in intensive care at the hospital of Codogno, municipality of 15,600 inhabitants in the province of Lodi (Lombardy). Among those infected is also his wife, an eight-month pregnant teacher, and a friend of the infected Unilever with whom he shared sports activities. Mattia YM, originally from Castiglione d’Adda, a town of 4,700 inhabitants in the province of Lodi (Lombardy), had appeared on February 15 in the emergency department of Codogno hospital, complaining of respiratory problems, but was soon sent home.
Then he had a sudden worsening and was hospitalized again in Codogno last Wednesday, day 19, being positive in the coronavirus test. In this hospital three people have been infected. When establishing the contagion chain, it became known that Mattia, the ” zero patient “, had met a colleague who had returned from China on January 21, the alleged “index case”, a manager of the MAE company based in Fiorenzuola d ‘Arda, municipality of the province of Piacenza, in the Emilia-Romagna region, who at the moment has been negative, although now it is isolated and quarantined.
Emergency measures have been taken immediately. In principle, about 250 people were isolated for analysis, including 160 employees of the multinational Uniliver, companions of Mattia YM All of them will remain in quarantine for fourteen days. In the early afternoon, the Minister of Health of Lombardy asked that, as a precaution, the inhabitants of the three villages related to infected people (Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo and Codogno, the latter town where trains do not stop) remain in their homes, “in voluntary quarantine.” Then the measure was extended to a total of ten villages in the Lombardy region, one in Veneto and one in Emilia-Romagna. In those municipalities, schools, bars, restaurants, offices, sports facilities have been closed until Tuesday and the carnival has been suspended.
