Yesterday in Lombardy the Coronavirus hit Italy for the first time. There are 15 confirmed infections, two more in Veneto, in Vo 'Euganeo, in the Padua area. In the evening, one of the two pensioners infected in Veneto died, he was 78 years old. Health Minister Roberto Speranza reached Milan to take stock with the Lombard governor Attilio Fontana and the councilor for health Giulio Gallera, together with the commissioner of the Higher Institute of Health Silvio Brusaferro and Angelo Borrelli, commissioner for the emergency and head of civil protection.
An order has been issued which "locks up" the ten municipalities of the Lodi area in which the first infections occurred: Codogno, Castiglione d'Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo, San Fiorano . The authorities, therefore, immediately set to work to try to contain the emergency. The ten municipalities of the Lodi area concerned are subjected to an extraordinary surveillance regime: public events and sporting events are suspended, schools and second-tier commercial activities are closed. The trains will not stop in the stations of the Lombard "red zone" where about 50 thousand people live, who must necessarily stay at home. In the meantime, facilities are being prepared for those who need quarantine because they are suspected of having come into close contact with the sick. The military hospital of Baggio in Milan and the accommodations of the air force of San Polo connected to the San Damiano airport in Piacenza were identified as structures.
Immediate comment from Brussels by the President of the Council, Giuseppe Conte"We were prepared for this, we had prepared a plan and we are implementing it, the population should not be worried ".
Salvini accused the government of being inefficient: "Borders to be sealed, the government resigns". League and Brothers of Italy against the executive: "Insufficient controls, naval blockade and mandatory quarantine are needed".
Denounced the governor of Tuscany: "He put health at risk", while Fratelli d'Italia calls for "extraordinary" measures"The blockade of air traffic to and from China and checks at airports and stations must be accompanied by the naval blockade to prevent the virus from arriving by sea. " Matteo Salvini asked to "lock the borders" and to introduce the "mandatory quarantine" for those returning from China. For the leader of the League, the controls decided by the government did not work.
Returning to the emergency to trigger the alert was the wife of the 38-year-old hospitalized in Codogno hospital, in the Lodi area. The man lives in Castiglione d'Adda and is on a reserved prognosis, in serious condition. He is assisted by a team from the Milanese Sacco hospital, a national reference point for bio-emergencies together with the Lazzaro Spallanzani institute in Rome. Tests are underway to ascertain whether he contracted the virus from a friend from China on 21 January and tested negative for the first "swabs", perhaps because he has already recovered. Unfortunately, the 38-year-old's pregnant wife also fell ill. An acquaintance of the man, a runner like him, and a woman from the same area also tested positive. In the night between Thursday and Friday, three other elderly people presented themselves to the Codogno emergency room with symptoms of the virus. The first cases triggered checks on hundreds of other people. From these checks, another 8 infections emerged: 3 health workers, 4 patients, a relative of the man who returned from China. In evaluation the "swab" carried out to the family doctor who first visited the 38-year-old patient at home. The fifteenth case concerns a woman from the Cremona area.