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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts) Sun Feb 23, 2020, 07:57 PM Feb 2020

Italy rushes to contain Europe's first major coronavirus outbreak

Italy scrambled Sunday to check the spread of Europe's first major outbreak of the new viral disease amid rapidly rising numbers of infections and a third death, calling off the popular Venice Carnival, scrapping major league soccer matches in the stricken area and shuttering theaters, including Milan's legendary La Scala.

The decision to call off Venice Carnival was announced by Veneto regional Gov. Luca Zaia as the number of confirmed virus cases soared to 152, the largest number outside Asia.

Concern was also on the rise in neighboring Austria, which halted all rail traffic to and from Italy for several hours after suspicion that a train at its southern border with Italy had two passengers possibly infected with the virus on board, authorities said. Austria's interior ministry said it had been informed by Italy’s railway company that two passengers had fever and stopped the train at the Brenner crossing before it could enter Austria.

Road blocks were set up in at least some of 10 towns in Lombardy at the epicenter of the outbreak, including in Casalpusterlengo, to keep people from leaving or arriving. Even trains transiting the area weren't allowed to stop.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-nw-italy-coronavirus-outbreak-20200223-bkav5tnsbvh23cmppd4ecaozjm-story.html

5 replies

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Italy rushes to contain Europe's first major coronavirus outbreak (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Feb 2020 OP

Canceling Carnival is a big deal. BigmanPigman Feb 2020 #1

I hate to think of the virus being found in refugee camps in Jordan, outside Syria question everything Feb 2020 #2

Italy still can't work out how it came to the country, which implies a carrier without symptoms muriel_volestrangler Feb 2020 #3

This is incredibly dire to those of us who live in Europe DFW Feb 2020 #4

They're up to 217 in Italy spinbaby Feb 2020 #5

BigmanPigman

(51,635 posts)

1. Canceling Carnival is a big deal.

Reply to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

Sun Feb 23, 2020, 08:39 PM

Feb 2020

It needed to be done though. Too bad.

question everything

(47,537 posts)

2. I hate to think of the virus being found in refugee camps in Jordan, outside Syria

Reply to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

Sun Feb 23, 2020, 11:54 PM

Feb 2020

Or in many of the high concentrations in Europe: Italy, Greece, Hungary and other.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,368 posts)

3. Italy still can't work out how it came to the country, which implies a carrier without symptoms

Reply to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

Mon Feb 24, 2020, 04:54 AM

Feb 2020

Hundreds of colleagues who worked with the first infected man, a researcher at Unilever, were being tested but it was still unclear whom he had contracted the illness from. The man, who was in intensive care, was initially thought to have caught the virus after meeting a colleague who had recently returned from China, but the colleague tested negative.

“Unfortunately, the person who was considered to be ‘patient zero’ was not,” said Attilio Fontana, the president of Lombardy. “We need to look elsewhere. We are following two hypotheses, and we will try to understand if one of the two is correct.”

The 38-year-old recently took part in a number of races. His pregnant wife is also infected, as is a person who went running with him. Three other cases in Lombardy are elderly people who frequented a bar in Codogno owned by the father of the man who went running with the 38-year-old.

The man who died in Veneto was diagnosed with pneumonia a few weeks ago but had not travelled to China nor come into contact with anyone who had.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/23/italy-draconian-measures-effort-halt-coronavirus-outbreak-spread

DFW

(54,445 posts)

4. This is incredibly dire to those of us who live in Europe

Reply to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

Mon Feb 24, 2020, 05:25 AM

Feb 2020

The EU borders are so open and fluid these days, it's virtually impossible to close a country off. Border control stations between Schengen member countries are mostly unmanned these days. I drove with one of my colleagues from Düsseldorf to Utrecht in the Netherlands about two weeks ago, and the only way you know you were no longer in Germany was that all the signs were suddenly in Dutch. This virus is headed up here to Central Europe, and beyond developing a vaccine in impossibly record time, there isn't a lot we can do about it except hope it isn't fatal to the masses.

spinbaby

(15,090 posts)

5. They're up to 217 in Italy

Reply to left-of-center2012 (Original post)

Mon Feb 24, 2020, 06:36 AM

Feb 2020

What makes this especially concerning is that, by the time symptoms develop, people have been out there spreading the virus for a week or two.

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