Italy has reported its first coronavirus fatality. Photo: Sky News

           FEBRUARY  23rd   2020

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily

Largest Coronavirus Cluster outside of Asia – Italy invaded by Virus

Italy has had to close down its Venice Carnival as the country’s been put on lockdown due to a severe case of the COVID-19 coronavirus that’s broken out recently, and has already infected up to at least 130 people.

At least 2 people have died of the virus in Italy thus far due to the virus, a small number when compared to the everyday fatalities suffered in China where the virus has already seen around 76,000 infections and 2,442 deaths overall. The figures in Italy, however, make it the case with the largest cluster of infected people outside of Asia – and therefore the most virus-heavy country in Europe at the moment.

Due to the outbreak, the government was forced to introduce strict quarantine restrictions, which are focused on preventing massive travel to and from what have been called northern "hotspot" regions. The two regions seeing quarantine are close to Milan and Venice, and have become subject to some heavy monitoring.

The COVID-19 virus, originating in the Chinese province of Hubei and gaining massively widespread media attention since its travel to at least 11 other countries since -likely more, that hadn’t been reported in- has a higher recovery rate than it has a death rate, according to observations from Chinese authorities who’ve been battling the virus since that start of January.

It was announced on Saturday in Italy by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that such a situation called for “extraordinary measures” to be taken in order to begin preventing the outbreak from spreading to greater proportions. He added that the quarantine restrictions have the potential to last for weeks, if the numbers of the COVID-19 continue to increase exponentially. The authority to maintain the reinforcement of the regulations being put in place has been put in the hands of the police, and the armed forces if necessary.

The outbreak’s source is still being tracked, say the Italian officials, who still can’t fully ascertain how the virus had arrived where it had. According to Italian media sources, there were initial suspicions cast the way of a business man who’d recently returned to Lombardy from China. However, after tests were taken on him for the virus, it was ascertained that he wasn’t infected, nor was he a carrier.

Regional president Luca Zaia was the one who’d announced the closure of the Venice Carnival, to Sky TG24 television on Sunday. "From this evening, we plan to stop carnival and all sporting activities until the 1^st of March," he told the service. "As a precaution I think that the schools have to be closed in Milan. I will propose to the president of the region to enlarge the precaution to the entire metropolitan city area. It is just a precaution, we don't want to create panic."

The head of Italy's Civil Protection Department, Angelo Borrelli, informed reporters that 88 of the confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus were all in Lombardy. 24 were told to be in Veneto along with other cases piling on in Lazio, Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna.

After China, the country with the greatest viral number in Asia at the moment is South Korea, with at least over 600 cases reported, along with six deaths. Although, there are more cases reported on the Diamond Princess – the cruise ship docked in Japan at the moment, in quarantine after cases of the virus were reported on board.

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily