A flight carrying 56 Italians
evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan
landed at the Pratica di Mare military base near Rome on Monday.
One of the Italian citizens who was supposed to board the
flight, a 17-year-old exchange student, remained in China
because he had a fever, diplomatic sources said Monday.
International health protocols do not allow people showing
symptoms that could be linked to the virus on board flights to
safeguard the health of the other passengers, the sources
explained, adding that the Italian national is being closely
watched by medical personnel, the embassy and Chinese foreign
ministry.
"He has done the test (for the coronavirus) and we should
have the results tomorrow," Stefano Verrecchia, the head of the
foreign ministry's crisis unit, told ANSA.
"The situation is pretty calm for him.
"He's being looked after by two Italian ladies in an
apartment belonging to the embassy, which is constantly in
contact with him".
The Italian group was taken on two buses to the Cecchignola
military complex in Rome where they will be under observation
for two weeks, as in other countries that have flown in their
citizens from the virus-hit area.
The virus has an incubation period of up to two weeks.
"At the moment they are all well," said Verrecchia.
"There aren't any problems.
"They have been under a lot of pressure (over the last few
weeks) but they don't seem fatigued.
"They are just tired from the journey".
Lorenzo Di Berardino, a 22-year-old student from Pescara who
was among the group to be repatriated, said the health scare had
not put him off China.
"I'll return to China soon," he said, according to his
parents.
"I liked it. It was just a little misadventure (for me)".
Doctors at Rome's Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital have managed
to isolate the DNA of the deadly new Chinese coronavirus.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said the findings would be
made available to the international medical community to boost
efforts to find therapies for disease.
The Spallanzani is specialised in infectious diseases and
is currently treating a couple of Chinese tourists who have the
virus.
A foreign national who was admitted to the Spallanzan's
intensive-care department of on Sunday has tested negative for
the coronavirus, the Lazio regional health department said
Monday.
Sources said that the patient was an elderly Irish man.
A young Chinese woman was allegedly pushed off a stationary
coach on its way from Cuneo to Turin amid coronavirus panic
recently, Turin's Chinese community told Mayor Chiara Appendino
Monday.
The woman, who has not been named, was allegedly told she was
not welcome on the vehicle because she was Chinese, according to
what she reportedly told the community.
The woman, who does not have a good command of Italian, did
not file a complaint with police.
Appendino was told about the incident during a lunch with the
Chinese community at a Chinese restaurant in the northwestern
Italian city.
There has been a handful of similar incidents of anti-Chinese
discrimination in Italy since the coronavirus news broke last
month.
The governors of the northern regions of Veneto, Lombardy,
Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige have written a
joint letter to the health ministry in which they request pupils
who return to Italy after a period in China to be subject to a
period of isolation.
This would also apply to children attending Italian schools.
"There is no desire for political confrontation or to put
people into ghettos," said Veneto Governor Luca Zaia of the
rightwing League party.
"We just want to respond to the anxiety of many parents,
given that the (government's) circular letter does not feature
these sorts of measures".
China said Monday it urgently needed medical equipment and
surgical masks as the death toll from the new coronavirus jumped
above 360, making it more deadly than the SARS crisis nearly two
decades ago.
The 57 new deaths confirmed Monday was the single-biggest
daily increase since the virus was detected late last year in
the central city of Wuhan, where it is believed to have jumped
from animals at a market into humans.
The virus has since spread to more than 24 countries despite
many governments imposing unprecedented travel bans on arrivals
coming from China.
The World Health Organization has declared the crisis a
global health emergency, and the first foreign death from the
virus was confirmed in the Philippines on Sunday.
All but one of the 57 new deaths reported Monday were in
Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province, most of which has been
under lockdown for almost two weeks.
The national death toll reached 361 -- exceeding the 349
mainland fatalities from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) outbreak of 2002-03.
The number of infections also jumped significantly, passing
17,200.
SARS, caused by a pathogen similar to the new coronavirus and
also originated in China, killed 774 people -- with most other
deaths in Hong Kong.
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