Schools have been closed and cultural events banned as the biggest flare-up in Europe hits the wealthy north
An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno, Italy, after the government ordered closures amid a coronavirus outbreak, February 23 2020. Picture: MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP
“As of this evening, there will be a ban on the Venice Carnival as well as on all events, including sporting ones, until March 1 inclusive,” the regional governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, told reporters. He said Sunday’s festivities in the packed lagoon city would continue to prevent any public-order problems.
Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a combined population of about 50,000, have effectively been placed under quarantine, with locals urged to stay at home and special permission needed to enter or leave the designated areas. Health authorities are struggling to work out how the outbreak started. The first cases were announced on Friday and doctors do not know its source.
Before Friday, Italy had reported just three cases of the virus — all of them people who had recently arrived from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the illness emerged in 2019.
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