Posted on 02/22/2020 6:48:38 PM PST by blam
ROME (AP) – A dozen towns in northern Italy were on effective lockdown Saturday after the new virus linked to China claimed a first fatality in Italy and sickened an increasing number of people who had no direct links to the origin of the virus.
The secondary contagions prompted local authorities in towns in Lombardy and Veneto to order schools, businesses and restaurants closed, and to cancel sporting events and Masses.
An initial ordinance penned by the health minister imposed an effective lockdown on 10 towns around Lodi, southeast of Milan. But individual cities outside that core cordon area, such as Cremona, issued their own restrictions cancelling school after confirming cases.
State-run RAI television reported a 78-year-old man, one of two people in the Veneto region to have been infected, died Friday. Italian news agencies ANSA and LaPresse also reported the death, citing the Veneto regional president, Luca Zaia.
The numbers of infected were in constant flux, after Lombardy reported an initial quadrupling of cases on Friday bringing Italy´s total to at least 19. Authorities planned a news conference later Saturday to give the most up-to-date figures.
Authorities urged calm, but acknowledged that the clusters were alarming given people were being infected who had no known contact with anyone directly related to China. The first man to be confirmed as infected had met with someone who had returned from China but remains without symptoms.
Separately Saturday, 19 Italians who spent more than two weeks quarantined on a virus-stricken cruise liner in Japan landed at Rome’s military Pratica di Mare airport. They had been stranded on the Diamond Princess since Feb. 5.
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(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Below posted earlier:
Trump Furious Americans Infected With Coronavirus Flew Back To US Without His Permission: Report
ping
Typhoid Mary`s are everywhere.
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This actually builds a good case for prepping.
Hopefully, those folks had considered the situation beforehand and decided to get ready.
I have been stocking up over the last few weeks.
Nothing major, just buying a little extra every time I shop to add to my more than adequate stores already.
I wonder how they came in contact with the virus. I can’t help but wonder if it’s on the surface of goods brought in from China.
How does a disease that has no direct connection with China emerge in rural Tuscany?
There are more things in heaven and on earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
No direct link was the story out of Iran. No direct link is the story out of Italy. Could this have been seeded in multiple places as biowarfare?
No. The fact that Chinese have visited none of these places is concerning. No one can find an apparent source of transmission.
If its not spread by humans, then containing its diffusion appears to be virtually impossible.
My understanding is this flu deal will subside in March. If it doesn’t, I’ll move to the teekwanea atoll.
Bad news is it should start spiking soon in the southern hemisphere.
Oh hell! Then I’ll go to the arctic.
People go all over the planet now.
I have a friend who is visiting in Italy the month of February. I check on his house for him and his wife.
When he gets back I and other friends will have breakfast with him.
You never know what can happen with a virus. -Tom
Two points 1) So far definitive diagnostic test kits for the COVID-19 virus are not available even to major American medical centers. There has been no way to do widespread testing of patients with flu like illnesses. Thousands of people have travelled from Wusan to multiple points in the United States fro Dec 15-jan 15. The virus is definitely here. Yet there have been no reported big outbreaks. Either there are no outbreaks or many people with the “flu” have undiagnosed COVID 19 infections
2) With all due respect to the Iranians and Italians just how are they making the diagnosis? There are atleast three subtypes of coronavirus other that COVID 19 that cause flu like sometimes fatal disease. Almost all US hospitals have the means to test for these subtypes. Wonder if the Iranians and Italians ( as well as some others) are confusing a subtype of coronavirus with COVID19. When a definitive reliable test for COVID 19 is available, would like to see those Italian and Iranian victims retested.
The point is much is still not known about this disease and its epidemiology. The Chinese have been obsessively secretive and will not allow the CDC or non vested scientists into their country to study this outbreak. Unless the Italian and Iranian outbreaks are definitively confirmed to be COVID 19, it would appear that this disease most readily infects Asiatics. Otherwise, unless it has not been diagnosed properly, would have expected by now major outbreaks in North America.
I got a flu shot last fall. I am curious about whether it provides any protection against this coronavirus strain. And how close are they to producing a vaccine for this coronavirus strain?
A key issue remains not just air travel, but the planes themselves. Aircraft can be used on numerous routes, and the cleaning in between flights is typically not a complete and total disinfection.
long international flights might only see a plane only flying once in a 24 hour period, but there have been reports that the virus can last for days on a surface. The virus just needs to wait until the next set of passengers climb on board and then it could have 8-12 hours to infect an individual as that air is recirculated inside the cabin.
It would be incredibly fortuitous but somewhat unlikely that people who have had a yearly flu shot (aimed at various subtypes of the influenza virus) would have some cross immunity to the coronavirus COVID 19. Yet that will no doubt be studied. Vaccine? Very long way off. So far they are having great difficulty designing a mass produced diagnostic test.
I lived in Naples for three years (71-74)while in the Navy. The most fascinating place I’ve ever lived. But I thank God every day that I am now in these United States for the duration. Anyway, those people lived pretty much on top of each other, and a virus could spread like wildfire.
Roger that. Always hope.
I heard there would be a vaccine in 10 years.
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