ROME, March 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen to 34, five more than a day earlier, officials said.
The head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said the cumulative number of confirmed cases of the virus had jumped to 1,694 from 1,128 on Saturday, virtually all of them coming to light since Feb 20 in the worst such contagion in Europe.
Of that number, 83 people had fully recovered, while 140 patients were in intensive care. The vast majority of those who have tested positive have few, if any symptoms.
Around 90 per cent of all cases are concentrated in the wealthy northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. The government has ordered that schools and universities must remain closed there for a second week, with large public gatherings still banned in an effort to halt the contagion.
As the human toll grows, the government is increasingly worried about the economic outlook. Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri announced the cabinet would approve this week 3.6 billion euros of measures to help companies.
This came on top of an aid-package worth 900 million euros that was unveiled on Friday for the worst-impacted zones.
One of the hardest hit sectors is likely to be tourism, which accounts for 13 per cent of gross domestic product, with hotels reporting mass cancellations even in cities with few or no coronavirus cases, such as Rome.
For the first time, a church in the heart of Rome announced that it was closing as a precautionary measure after a priest who had been working there came down with the virus.
A Roman Catholic news agency said the 43-year-old priest had returned to Paris by car in the middle of February and tested positive for the virus on Friday.
Only two cases of the disease have come to light so far in Rome – two Chinese tourists in January – and it was not clear where the priest was infected.
