Italian coronavirus deaths jump to 148, cases climb to 3,858

A man wearing a protective face mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus walks past the Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy, 4 March – Reuters

Reuters: The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 41 over the past 24 hours to 148, the Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday, with the contagion still showing no sign of slowing.

The accumulative number of cases in the country, which has been hardest hit by the virus in Europe, totalled 3,858, up from 3,089 on Wednesday.

The head of the agency said that of those originally infected, 414 had fully recovered versus 276 the day before.

The contagion came to light 14 days ago and is focused on a handful of hotspots in the north of Italy. However, cases have now been confirmed in each of the country's 20 regions.  

Italy closed all schools and universities and took other emergency measures on Wednesday to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Europe’s worst-hit country as the death toll and number of cases jumped.

Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said schools and universities all over the country would be closed from Thursday until at least 15 March. Only those in the northern regions most heavily affected by the epidemic have been closed so far.

The number of cases since the outbreak surfaced 13 days ago rose to 3,089 from 2,502 on Tuesday. Of those who contracted the disease, about 3.5% had died, the head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, said.

The government adopted a decree to try to slow infections which have been rising by about 500 per day. “Our hospitals, despite their efficiency, risk being overwhelmed, we have a problem with intensive-care units,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. The decree orders “the suspension of events of any nature ... that entail the concentration of people and do not allow for a safety distance of at least one metre (yard) to be respected.”

It calls for the closure of cinemas and theatres and tells Italians not to shake hands or hug each other, and to avoid “direct physical contact with all people.”