Coronavirus spikes in Europe as Italy places northern towns on lockdown and global pandemic fears mount

The impact of Covid-19 hit Europe hard over the weekend, as the Italian government in particular took drastic action to try and halt a fast-rising number of cases in the country. The Italian authorities placed several northern towns on lockdown as there were reports of up to 150 cases in the country by Sunday evening, up from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) official figure of 76 on Sunday morning. Italy now has the worst outbreak of coronavirus in Europe. Austrian state rail company ÖBB confirmed to German news agency Deutsche Welle (DW) that trains through the key Brenner Pass have been halted “until further notice” because two infected passengers had been identified on the Austrian-Italian border. The WHO figures published on Sunday morning reported that there were 121 cases of the virus confirmed in Europe, including Israel, spread across ten countries, and three deaths – two in Italy and one in France. The Italian government on Saturday announced “extraordinary measures” to prevent further spread of the virus. DW reported that the death of a 75-year-old woman near the small town of Codogno in Lombardy, northern Italy, came the day after a 78-year-old man succumbed to the virus in the neighbouring region of Veneto. Venice authorities yesterday cancelled its carnival celebrations that were supposed to end on Tuesday. Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region, reportedly confirmed that the event had been suspended after two elderly people had been hospitalised in Venice with the virus. Austria's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the train that caused the state rail company to cancel all trains between the country and Italy had been travelling from Venice to Munich. It said Italian authorities alerted their Austrian counterparts about two people exhibiting fever symptoms on the train. "The further procedure is currently being discussed together with the Italian authorities," the Interior Ministry said, according to DW. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, has said the international community needs to act quickly before the narrowing “window of opportunity” to contain the disease closes completely. Other experts have warned that the world is fast approaching a tipping point in the spread of the disease, which they said is outpacing efforts to contain its spread. Fears over a global pandemic are mounting. According to the BBC, Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia in the UK, said yesterday: “The tipping point after which our ability to prevent a global pandemic seems a lot closer after the past 24 hours.” Mr Hunter added that while cases are falling in China, the weekend saw some “extremely concerning developments elsewhere”. “The identification of the large cluster of cases in Italy is a big worry for Europe and we can expect there to be quite a few more cases identified in the next few days,” the expert said, according to the BBC. There have been big falls on European stock markets due to renewed fears about the outbreak. The FTSE MIB stock market in Italy has dropped 4%. The German Dax index is down 3.4%, France’s Cac is down 3.5% and the UK’s FTSE 100 is down by 2.8%. Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association has warned that the outbreak stands to cost the airline industry $29.3bn of revenue this year. It predicts that air travel will fall for the first time in more than a decade. The China Passenger Car Association said car sales in China fell 92% in the first half of February as coronavirus hit.

Coronavirus spikes in Europe as Italy places northern towns on lockdown and global pandemic fears mount

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