在狂欢节的最后一个周末，意大利东北部遭遇了一场无声的恐慌。酒吧、学校、餐馆和其他10个城镇的公共场所都关闭了，预计还会有更多的关闭，此前该地区报告了头两起新冠状病毒死亡事件。从米兰到威尼斯，村庄和社区就像鬼城。
据安莎通讯社报道，第一名受害者，一名76岁的老人，死于威尼斯北部的威尼斯地区的帕多瓦。周六，第二名受害者在米兰东南的伦巴第地区死亡，据报道至少有32例新病例。
“这有点令人担忧。在帕多瓦发生之前，这几乎就像是媒体的噱头，”居住在北部城市费尔特雷的马可·贝尔托尼告诉记者新闻周刊。"现在离得更近了，人们开始担心了。尽管帕多瓦并不是那么近，人们还是很害怕，因为他们不知道源头。让我们希望它不会扩散，但是如果它扩散了，我想我们的医疗服务已经准备好了。"
超过50，000人被要求呆在家中，避开狂欢节庆典、教堂弥撒和体育赛事。
“一切都在控制之中，”意大利总理朱塞佩·孔戴告诉当地媒体。
据法新社报道，在伦巴第一个村庄的卡萨普斯特伦戈，市政厅外的一个留言板上写着:“冠状病毒:作为预防措施，居民被邀请呆在室内。”。
一名38岁的意大利男子从中国的一次商务会议回来，这是意大利第一例当地报道的病例。他和他怀孕的妻子，以及一个和他一起运动的朋友，都在重症监护室。意大利媒体报道说，另外三起案件发生在经常去镇上酒吧的老年人身上。
欧洲的死亡发生在世界卫生组织(世卫组织)警告阻止冠状病毒快速流行的“窗口变窄”之后。周六早些时候，世界卫生组织表示担心，一名感染者没有与从中国旅行回来的人接触的病例有所上升。
与此同时，伊朗卫生部报告了10例新的COVID-19感染病例和1例新的死亡病例，使整个中东地区的死亡人数上升到5人。周五，黎巴嫩和以色列也确认了他们的第一例病毒病例。上个月，阿拉伯联合酋长国是中东第一个报告新冠状病毒病例的国家。
世界卫生组织总干事特德罗斯·阿德诺姆·盖布雷耶苏斯说:“疫情可能向任何方向发展。”卫报。“如果我们做得好，我们可以避免任何严重的危机，但如果我们浪费了这个机会，我们将面临一个严重的问题。”
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学的数据，全球死亡人数达到2360人，超过77662例，其中21029例已经康复。阿德诺姆在推特上说，80%的病例被认为是轻微的，20%是严重的，2%是致命的。
这种致命病毒的特征是症状包括发烧、干咳和气短。病例主要发生在中国大陆，尽管病毒已经传播到超过25个国家和地区，包括美国，如下图所示Statista。
截至2月21日已确诊的康龙病毒病例。
去年年底，当中国湖北省武汉市一个市场的工人生病时，卫生官员发现了这种病毒。虽然专家们致力于了解病毒是如何传播的，但最近的研究表明，污染可能是通过接触粪便来实现的。
中国疾病预防控制中心发表了一份报告称在COVID-19的粪便中发现了病毒来自东北黑龙江省的病人。“这种病毒有许多传播途径，这可以部分解释它的强大传播和快速传播速度，”报告补充说。
世卫组织指出，冠状病毒家族的其他成员，即非典和中东呼吸综合征，主要是通过不卫生的条件传播的，即受感染的人与受感染病人的咳嗽和打喷嚏密切接触。
2020年1月29日，罗马市中心的一家药店展示了一个用多种语言(包括中文)向顾客建议呼吸面具已经售完的标志。
TOWNS IN ITALY UNDER LOCKDOWN AS CORONAVIRUS CASES SURGE IN SOUTHERN EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST
A silent panic befell northeastern Italy during the final weekend of carnival. Bars, schools, restaurants, and other public spaces in 10 towns here closed, with more expected to follow, after the region reported its first two deaths from the new coronavirus. From Milan to Venice, villages and communities resembled ghost towns.
The first victim, a 76-year-old man, died in Padua, in the Veneto region north of Venice, according to the Ansa news service. A second victim died in the Lombardy region southeast of Milan on Saturday, where at least 32 new cases were reported.
"It's a little worrying. Until this happened in Padua it almost seemed like a media stunt," Marco Bertoni, who lives in the northern city of Feltre, told Newsweek. "Now that it's closer, people are worried. Even though Padua isn't all that close, people are scared because they don't know the source. Let's hope it doesn't spread, but if it does, I think our health services are prepared."
More than 50,000 people have been asked to remain shuttered inside their homes and to avoid carnival celebrations, church masses, and sporting events.
"Everything is under control," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told local media.
In Casalpusterlengo, in a village in Lombardy, a message board outside the town hall read: "Coronavirus: the population is invited to remain indoors as a precaution," according to Agence France-Presse.
A 38-year-old Italian man returning from a business meeting in China was the first locally reported case in Italy. He and his pregnant wife, and a friend with whom the man played sports, were each in intensive care. Italian media reported that three other cases were in elderly people who frequented bars in their town.
The deaths in Europe come after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the "narrowing" window in which to stem the rapid coronavirus epidemic. Early Saturday, WHO expressed concern that cases have risen where an infected person had not been in contact with someone returning from travel to China.
Meanwhile, Iran's health ministry reported 10 new cases of the COVID-19 infection, and one new death, raising the toll across the Middle East to five. Lebanon and Israel also confirmed their first cases of the virus on Friday. Last month, the United Arab Emirates was the first country in the Middle East to report cases of the new coronavirus.
"This outbreak could go in any direction," said WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to The Guardian. "If we do well, we can avert any serious crisis, but if we squander the opportunity then we will have a serious problem on our hands."
The worldwide death toll reached 2,360, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 77,662 cases of which 21,029 have recovered. Adhanom, in a Twitter post, said that 80 percent of cases are considered mild, 20 percent critical, and 2 percent are fatal.
The deadly virus is characterized by symptoms including fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Cases are predominantly in mainland China, though the virus has spread to more than 25 countries and territories, including the United States, as shown below in the infographic by Statista.
Confirmed conronavirus cases as of February 21.
Health officials late last year discovered the virus when workers at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Hubei province, fell ill. While experts work to understand how the virus is transmitted, recent studies suggest contamination may come through contact with fecal matter.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a report stating the virus had been found in the stool of COVID-19 patients from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. "This virus has many routes of transmission, which can partially explain its strong transmission and fast transmission speed," the report added.
The WHO noted that other members of the coronavirus family, namely SARS and MERS, were transmitted largely through unsanitary conditions, where the exposed individuals came in close contact to an infected patient's coughing and sneezing.
A sign advising clients in various languages, including Chinese, that respiratory masks are sold out, is displayed on January 29, 2020 at a pharmacy in downtown Rome.
