The death of a woman on Saturday has raised two fatalities from coronavirus in Italy. According to Italian media, it is a person over 70 years old, from the town of Casalpusterlengo (Lombardy), in the north of the country, who lived alone and has died at home. Attending to the same sources, the woman had gone to the hospital of neighboring Codogno, one of the main centers, where the first infected patient is admitted in Italy, and also suffered other respiratory complications.
The escalation of those affected since Friday has forced the Government to admit the seriousness of the situation and isolation measures have been decreed for almost 50,000 inhabitants. To the rapidity of the appearance of the cases and the concern joins him for not being clear the focus of the contagion nor the epidemiological link that would allow isolating the disease with more effectiveness.
On Friday, a 78-year-old man died in a hospital in Padua, in the Veneto region, who suffered from other previous respiratory diseases. The provisional number of infected people has increased in a few hours throughout the country, according to Italian media, and amounts to almost 40. In addition to the two victims, 27 cases have been registered in Lombardy, including the relatives of the deceased man; and seven in the Veneto region. In addition, three other patients have been admitted to a hospital in Rome for weeks affected by the disease. This is a couple of Chinese tourists and an Italian researcher who had been in Wuhan, the Chinese epicenter region of the epidemic.
According to doctors from the Spallanzani center in the Italian capital, specializing in infectious diseases, both the Italian and the Chinese man have overcome the disease and attending to the results of the latest tests that have been performed, the virus is no longer present in their organisms, so they could be discharged soon. The woman, who remains in the intensive care unit, breathes autonomously and is improving even though she still has the virus.
Doctors have stressed that whoever overcomes the disease can no longer spread it.
The authorities call to remain calm and have set up a crisis cabinet in Rome, at the Civil Protection headquarters, which maintains permanent contact with Lombardy, one of the centers with the highest number of cases. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced that the Government is considering implementing new "extraordinary measures" to deal with the emergency. At the moment, air traffic with China has been suspended for a few weeks. This measure was taken when the first case of the disease was confirmed in Italy, with Chinese tourists and before the first infections were registered in Italian territory.
Ella Nella notte la Protezione civile del Veneto has mounted scopo precauzionale 12 tende per massimo 96 posti all'esterno dell'ospedale di Schiavonia (Padova), available to the medical operator. ❌❌❌ #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/sC7U4rpwJb
- Luca Zaia (@zaia President) February 22, 2020About 250 people remain in mandatory quarantine and about 47,000 people, who live in a dozen villages in the affected regions, have been isolated after the first cases were confirmed on Friday. Health Minister Roberto Speranza has announced that restrictive measures will be expanded.
The first case was that of a 38-year-old Italian man from Castiglione d'Adda (Lombardy), south of Milan. The patient was hospitalized on Wednesday, with symptoms of respiratory failure, but at first it was ruled out that he could keep any relationship with Wuhan's coronavirus (Covid-19), since an obvious connection with China was not established. But when his situation worsened and he had to be transferred to the intensive care unit, his wife gave the alert that activated the protocol: the man had met several times with a friend who had recently returned from the Asian country. But the track revealed an even more disconcerting and so far unusual situation.
The meetings between the two occurred much more than 14 days after his return from China, the time that the incubation process lasts in theory. In addition, tests performed on the potential carrier of the virus were negative. The man is still hospitalized for further tests, but he never had any symptoms and if he actually contracted the virus, his infection could have subsided already, as health authorities have suggested. The worst case scenario, and hence the alarm unleashed in the region, is that the epidemiological link was lost; that is, it is not known exactly how the first contagion was.