Page QQQ Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020
virus panic spreads
107 dead
in italy
Toll soars as schools are shut, sport
curbed and human contact limited
Minister Giuseppe Conte last
night said the measures were
needed to stop its health service
from crumbling amid warnings
the toll is more severe than cur-
rently known.
He said: ‘We are focused on
taking all measures for direct
containment or delaying the
spread of the virus.
‘The health system risks going
into overload, and we will have a
problem with intensive care if an
exponential crisis continues.’
Cases from Italy have been
reported across the world.
And yesterday two groups of
I t a l i a n t o u r i s t s , t o t a l l i n g 1 5
people, were being held in isola-
tion in India after testing positive
for the virus.
The Netherlands last night
became the latest country to
advise against travelling to the
worst affected areas of Italy, while
Tunisia stopped ferry services.
Authorities in Rome have cre-
ated two ‘red zones’ affecting 11
towns with 50,000 people in the
wealthy Lombardy and Veneto
regions in the north of the country.
They are considering extending
the zone to the city of Bergamo
after a cluster of cases there.
The overwhelming majority of
the deaths have occurred in north-
ern Italy. But infections havespread to all but one of its 20
regions, including 16 in Sicily.
Officials said 297 of those affected
remain in intensive care. With
restrictions currently focusing on
northern Italy, the government met
yesterday to decide how measurescould be rolled out nationwide.
E d u c a t i o n m i n i s t e r L u c i a
Azzolina said all schools and uni-
versities will close from today until
March 15. She said: ‘It wasn’t asimple decision for the govern-
ment. I hope pupils can return to
school as soon as possible.’
Additional measures being exam-
ined will allow for at least one par-
ent to take leave from work to look
after young children affected by
closures, while financial aid for
babysitting could be provided.
The blanket closure will see
around 8.4million students forced
to stay at home.
All sporting events will take place
without fans present for at least
the next month.
Six Serie A matches that were
postponed last week will be played
this weekend. That includes one ofthe biggest matches of the season,
the Juventus-Inter game.
Economy minister Roberto Gual-
tieri said: ‘We will do everything
necessary to reduce disruption to
the minimum.’
Under additional leaked plans,
people will be told to avoid
crowded public gatherings if pos-
sible and advised to stand at least
1m (3ft 3ins) apart.
A draft decree set out plans to
ban ‘events of any nature that
entail the concentration of people
and do not allow for a safety dis-
tance of at least one metre to be
respected’.
More practical steps will include
telling people not to share cups or
bottles, while over-75s will be
advised to stay at home.
People could be instructed not to
cough and sneeze in handkerchiefs
to avoid hands coming in contact
with ‘respiratory secretions’.
The outbreak has already had a
crippling effect on Italy’s tourism.
Airlines across the world have can-
celled flights there due to travel
warnings and a slump in demand.
Confturismo, the tourist indus-
try’s confederation, said the sector
was ‘on its knees’ and estimated it
could lose as much as £6.4billion.
T h e g o v e r n m e n t y e s t e r d a y
reported the first death south of
Rome in the Puglia region.
Sportsmail – Back Page
[email protected]ITALY closed all schools and universi-
ties yesterday as its death toll from
coronavirus soared to 107.
Authorities also ordered top-flight football
and sporting events to be played without
fans as part of desperate measures to stop
the illness sweeping the country.
The number of people killed there spiralled by
28 in 24 hours yesterday – the highest total in a
day. The majority were aged over 65.
Cases have surged past 3,000 with scientists
warning coronavirus may have been there weeks
earlier than first believed.
The crisis led to England’s Six Nations game
against Italy in Rome on March 14 being called
off last night.
Attempts to contain the spread in the Medi-
terranean country – the epicentre of the Euro-
pean outbreak – have so far proved futile. At
least a dozen of the UK’s cases have been peo-
ple who had recently returned from Italy.
Last night leaders were finalising unprece-
dented plans to limit human contact in daily
life. Under the wide-ranging blueprint, people
will be asked to stop greeting each other by kiss-
ing or shaking hands and advised not to stand
within three feet of others in public.
Ministers are also preparing a widespread
shutdown of Italy’s cinemas and theatres to
curtail the virus’s rapid spread. Italy’s Prime
By Mario Ledwith
Threat: Napoli’s San Paolo stadium
is sanitised yesterdayAT least ten people have died in just one US
state after contracting coronavirus, it
emerged last night.
The latest figure puts the overall death toll
in America at 11 – ten in Washington state and
one in California.
The US health department confirmed that a
tenth person had died in Washington state
last night, with 39 cases reported in the
greater Seattle area. Most of those who died
were residents of a nursing home in Kirkland,
a suburb east of Seattle.
Across the US, 149 cases have so far beenrecorded across more than a dozen of
America’s 50 states.
California last night announced its first death- with six patients yesterday diagnosed in Los
Angeles County – bringing the total number
infected in the area to seven.
The elderly patient, who has not been iden-
tified, died after contracting the virus during
a cruise from San Francisco to Mexico. The
patient suffered from underlying health con-
ditions, medics said.
The figures come just hours after President
Trump played down the disease. He said ear-
lier yesterday: ‘A lot of people are doing
domestic business now. They’re staying in this
country. They feel safe.
‘If you look at the percentage, we have a
very small percentage of infections.’
Elsewhere in the US, six people across New
York are battling the virus, with one man in a
critical condition last night. There are other
clusters of cases in Nebraska and Texas.
Last night, the public health department in
Washington state said it did not have enough
coronavirus tests to meet current demand,
according to CNN.Deaths rise to 10 in one US state
‘Risk of going
into overload’