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First Italian national tests positive for coronavirus

An Italian man has tested positive for coronavirus days after returning to Italy from China, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Italy to three.

Published: 7 February 2020 11:09 CET
First Italian national tests positive for coronavirus
Military personnel go through disinfecting procedures before assisting Italian citizens repatriated from Wuhan. Photo: Ansa/AFP

One of the 56 Italians nationals flown home earlier this week from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has tested positive for the virus, Italy's Higher Health Institute (ISS) confirmed late on Thursday.

Since landing in Rome on Monday, the evacuees have been kept in precautionary quarantine at a military facility on the outskirts of the capital.

The ISS said in a statement that the Italian man is now being treated in isolation at Rome's Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases.

The patient has a “modest temperature increase and conjunctival hyperaemia”, the ISS said.

Italians evacuated from eastern China are being kept in quarantine in Rome. Photo: Ansa/AFP

This is the third confirmed case of coronavirus in Italy so far.

Two Chinese nationals on holiday in Italy were diagnosed with the virus last week and are also being treated in isolation at the Spallanzani hospital.

The frst two victims, a woman and man in their 60s, are said to be in serious but stable condition. They are receiving what the hospital described as “experimental” treatment with antiretroviral drugs typically used against HIV, but which have also shown signs of working against the new coronavirus.

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The Italian government says it is also monitoring the situation aboard a cruise ship held in quarantine off Japan after at least 20 people aboard tested positive for the virus. Thirty-five Italians are on the Diamond Princess, ten of them passengers and another 25 crew, though so far none are believed to have the virus.

Meanwhile all passengers arriving at Italian airports, including from Europe and on some domestic flights, are being systematically scanned for higher than normal temperatures.

All direct flights between Italy and China were suspended after the Italian government declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus last week, making Italy the only country in Europe to cut off air travel entirely.

Italy has on Friday agreed to allow some flights to and from China, after the Chinese government accused other countries of “overreacting” by restricting flights. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson pointing out that the World Health Organization does not recommend preventing travel.

Photo: AFP

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

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Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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