Italy is the most affected country in the world by Covid-19 with more than 5,000 deaths. And the province of Bergamo, north of the Boot, is now the epicenter of the epidemic. But why is it so reached, to the point that the city is called the "Italian Wuhan", in reference to the Chinese city from which this new coronavirus started?
One of the explanations could come from a Champions League match between the local club, Atalanta Bergamo, and the Spaniards of Valencia, on February 19, as advanced by many theories in Italy and explained by the magazine So Football this weekend. Its usual stadium being too small to host such a meeting, counting for the knockout stages of the Champions League, Atalanta goes into exile during European matches in Milan, at the Giuseppe-Meazza stadium (or San Siro) .
Thousands of crowded people screaming and kissing ...
That evening, Atalanta confirmed its status as a surprise team in the Champions League season and outclassed the Spaniards (4-1). But more than 43,000 fans are present in the bays of the Milanese enclosure, as well as 2,500 spectators in the gallery reserved for visitors. A month after this euphoric evening for Bergamo, an Italian immunologist doctor explains in the columns of Corriere dello Sport that, unfortunately, this match contributed to "explode the cases".
"The aggregation of thousands of people, two centimeters from each other, shouting, kissing, may have favored the spread of the virus, details Francesco Le Floche. That evening there was a large expulsion of viral particles by the mouth or by the nose ”. Next to Corriere della Serra, a second specialist speaks of a "biological bomb" to evoke this match of February 19. “With hindsight, this match should never have taken place. But, as you said, in hindsight, ”concludes immunologist Francesco Le Floche.
Too late. Covid-19 could spread in Bergamo and its region, where 21% of people over the age of 65 live, the most severely affected by the disease. Sunday evening March 23, Italy had 5,476 dead for 59,138 confirmed cases.
