Officials said Friday that 14
people have been infected with the coronavirus in Lombardy,
while two other cases have been identified in Veneto.
People in several towns in Lombardy have been told to stay at
home and avoid social contact.
"There have already been clusters (of the deadly virus) in
Europe - in Germany and France," Health Minister Roberto
Speranza said.
"Italy is ready. We had already prepared a plan because it
was evident that what happened could happen.
"Now it's a question of applying the plan.
"Clearly this plan features immediate decisions for the areas
of the outbreak in order to limit it".
Giuseppe Ippolito, scientific director of Italy's top
infectious disease hospital, the Spallanzani in Rome, said "the
cases reported in Lombardy are the first registered on Italian
territory and take us into a new phase.
The first case is a man, 38, who is believed to have got the
virus after dining with a friend who had come back from China.
The other two initially infected people are the 38-year-old's
wife, a pregnant teacher on maternity leave, and a third person
who went to hospital suffering symptoms of pneumonia after doing
sport with the 38-year-old.
They are members of the same running club.
The teacher had not been in contact with children.
Three others are elderly clients of a bar Codogno, near Lodi,
owned by the father of the man who did sport with the
38-year-old, sources said.
The three customers never came into direct contact with the
38-year-old, according to the sources.
Lombardy Welfare Councillor Giulio Gallera said that the
eight other cases in the region included "five health personnel,
nurses and doctors from Codogno hospital, and three patients".
The town has closed schools, bars, eateries, discos,
dancehalls, gambling arcades and sporting facilities as a
precaution at least until Sunday.
Veneto Governor Luca Zaia said the two cases in his region
regarded to elderly people from the town of Vo' Euganeo, one of
whom is "in a critical condition in intensive care" in Padua.
He said neither of them had been to China and said schools
and shops in Vo' Euganeo were being closed.
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