Italy clamps down on travel after virus deaths, as cases rise

Two deaths from the new coronavirus sparked fears throughout northern Italy, as about 50,000 people were poised for a weeks-long lockdown imposed by authorities trying to halt a further increase in infections.

Italy on Friday became the first country in Europe to report the death of one of its own nationals from the virus, triggering travel restrictions on about a dozen towns where the number of people contaminated has continued to rise.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that people living inside the affected areas in the northern regions would be restricted to those areas, while schools and businesses closed, as part of measures designed to stem new infections.

"In zones considered hotspots, neither entry or exit will be authorised without special permission," Conte said during a press conference.

A 77-year-old woman died on Saturday near the small town of Codogno in Lombardy in the north, a day after a 78-year-old retired bricklayer succumbed to the virus in the neighbouring region of Veneto.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 79 by late Saturday, including the two deceased, said the head of Italy's civil protection department, Angelo Borelli.

Most are in the region of Lombardy, but three other regions in Italy's north have confirmed cases, as well as the central region of Lazio, which includes the capital, Rome.

Newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the virus had also been identified in Milan, Lombardy's largest city and the financial centre of Italy.

"The contagiousness of this virus is very strong and pretty virulent," Lombardy's health chief Giulio Gallera told a press conference earlier on Saturday.

But he cautioned: "Today it's not a pandemic."
He urged people not to "give in to feelings of panic." - 'Patient number one' -
"When I meet someone, I talk to them keeping my distance, or I take the long way around to get home so I don't run into anyone."