The corona virus has struck parts of Italy. The health ministers from Central Europe now want to discuss the situation. An EU authority considers it very likely that cases will also accumulate elsewhere.
Rome / Berlin (dpa) - After the outbreak of a coronavirus epidemic in Italy, Germany wants to coordinate with other European countries.
On Tuesday afternoon, Health Minister Jens Spahn wanted to meet with colleagues from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Croatia, France and EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in Rome. Ministers are expected to discuss how to respond to the spread of Sars-CoV-2. Spahn had said on Monday that a virus did not stop at national borders. In China and South Korea, the number of new infection reports rose sharply again.
According to the authorities, at least seven infected people died in Italy by early Monday evening - all of them had previous illnesses. Despite drastic measures such as restricted areas, the number of proofs of infection rose to more than 220, as civil defense chief Angelo Borrelli said in the evening in Rome. More than 25 people are in the intensive care unit.
"The Corona epidemic has arrived in Europe as an epidemic," said CDU politician Spahn in Berlin on Monday. "Therefore, we have to expect that it can also spread in Germany." The federal government is currently not planning to close any borders. There are no such considerations in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, a department spokesman said on Monday.
Italy is currently by far the country with the most cases recorded in Europe. In Lombardy, which was particularly hard hit, ten municipalities in the province of Lodi were declared restricted zones. There security guards control who is allowed in and out.
When asked whether entire cities in Germany could also be sealed off, Spahn said that a lot is theoretically conceivable. Such a step is not necessary.
A team of experts from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Italy on Monday. The WHO pointed out that, according to current data, four out of five infected people experience little or no symptoms.
According to a new ECDC assessment, the risk of infection with the virus is currently "low to moderate" for Europeans. The center assesses the risk as "moderate to high" that cases such as those currently occurring in Italy are also accumulating elsewhere.
The situation in China remains tense. As the Beijing Health Commission said on Tuesday, another 71 people were killed. The total number of victims in China thus rose to 2,663. The number of infections detected rose by 508 to 77,658. Since a new change in the way of counting almost a week ago, the daily increase in new infections in China has decreased significantly. The cases also focus on the central Chinese province of Hubei. Both are quoted by officials when calls are made to return to normal and resume production elsewhere in the country. However, experts continue to assume a high number of unreported cases.
The number of infected people in South Korea has risen sharply again. The centers for disease control and prevention announced that 60 new cases had been added overnight on Tuesday. So far, 893 infections have been detected in the country. Another death related to Covid-19 lung disease, which is caused by Sars-CoV-2, has also been reported. The number rose to eight.
South Korea and the United States are considering reducing joint maneuvers because of the new corona virus. It is currently being discussed, Pentagon chief Mark Esper said on Monday (local time) at a press conference with South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong Doo in Washington. "I am sure that we will continue to be fully prepared to face all the threats we will face together." Jeong said that 13 soldiers in the South Korean armed forces have been diagnosed with the new corona virus so far.
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