SUN, FEB 23 2020-theG&BJournal- There are now more than 100 cases of the COVID-19 confirmed in Italy and the government issued a decree Saturday to be able to stop people leaving or entering the worst impacted zones.
The worst hit areas in Italy are Lombardy and Italy’s industrial heartland, Veneto. Both regions account for 30% of the country’s gross domestic output.
Lombardy is home to Milan which hosts some of Italy’s biggest football clubs including AC Milan and Inter Milan
The Governor of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana told newsmen that cases of the illness in his area had risen in a day from 89 earlier, with total cases in the country now more than 100. About a dozen towns in northern Italy went into lockdown Saturday after deaths of two people infected with the coronavirus from China.
Milan’s mayor, Guiseppe Sala has ordered schools schools closed from Monday. Universities in both Lombardy and Veneto are also closed until early March.
Meanwhile, infection toll in China have reached 2,345. In South Korea, the national toll of 556 is now the highest outside China. Authorities in the country have raised their alert to highest level over the outbreak. The country has postponed start date for the new school year by 1 week from March 2 to March 9 due to the coronavirus. Daegu and Cheongdo have been declared ‘’special management zones.’’
Japan has also confirmed that woman who tested negative and left the coronavirus infected Diamond Princess Cruise ship later tested positive.
China Saturday reported 397 case but latest figures published by Xinhua shows a significant spike. Chinese health authority Sunday said it received reports of 648 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Among the deaths, 96 were in Hubei Province and one in Guangdong Province, according to the National Health Commission.
Saturday, Nigeria Health officials, led by Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Health Dr Adeleke Mamora briefed the press on Nigeria’s preparedness for COVID-19. They reiterated that there is no confirmed case in Nigeria but that the federal government will remain on high alert.
The World Health Organisation Friday warned that the increasing signs of transmission outside China show that the window of opportunity we have for containing this virus is narrowing.
‘’We are calling on all countries to invest urgently in preparedness. We have to take advantage of the window of opportunity we have, to attack the virus outbreak with a sense of urgency,’’ WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom said.
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