The global spread of the novel coronavirus has shown no signs of slowing down, with new cases emerging in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Germany and Britain yesterday despite the authorities’ efforts to stop it.
Health officials across Europe have traced many cases to Italy, where the number of cases has surpassed 1,000.
The Italian government is planning a €3.6bn ($3.9bn) aid package to help boost the economy in light of the coronavirus outbreak, Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper published yesterday.
He said that Italy’s cabinet intends to adopt the measures by the end of next week.
Gualtieri is confident the European Union would not challenge the request, and said that the approval of parliament would also be sought.
As a first step, Rome unveiled a €900mn aid package on Friday for the 11 areas in northern Italy being restricted.
Luxembourg became the latest European country to confirm its first case of novel coronavirus.
The 40-year-old man returned to the country from Italy via the Belgian airport of Charleroi earlier this week, Health Minister Paulette Lenert said.
The man is said to be doing well.
The Czech Republic also joined the list of at least 60 countries where the coronavirus has been detected.
Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech confirmed yesterday that three people had tested positive for the virus: two Czech nationals who had been in Italy, and an American who studied there.
None of the cases have turned out to be serious.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute nearly doubled its count of detected infections nationwide yesterday morning, jumping from 66 to 117.
In the western German district of Heinsberg, quarantine was lifted for several hundred residents who had attended a Carnival event with an infected person.
An estimated 600-700 residents could participate normally in public life again, a district spokesman said.
However, another roughly 330 people would have to wait another week, he said.
About 1,600 employees of a machine manufacturer in Bavaria were informed that they would have to stay home after a fellow worker was confirmed yesterday as one of the state’s four new cases.
The number of cases in Britain rose to 35 yesterday when the government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty reported 12 new infections.
The new cases included three people who were infected in Britain due to “close contacts of a known case”.
Six of the new cases were people who had recently returned from Italy and two had visited Iran, Whitty said.
The 12th person “had no relevant travel and it is not yet clear [how] they contracted it”.
All but four of Britain’s 35 cases were contracted elsewhere.
In a quarantined hotel on the vacation island of Tenerife, another guest has been confirmed as having the virus, bringing the number of infected on the Canary Island to five, said health authorities.
Finland reported its fifth coronavirus case yesterday, after two new cases were diagnosed, a school-aged child and a retired man who had been in close contact with an infected woman who had been in Italy.
Neighbouring Sweden has to date registered 14 cases, while Denmark has three cases.
Norway said yesterday that two more employees at Oslo University Hospital’s eye clinic have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, raising the country’s number of cases to 17.
Five cases have so far been linked to the eye clinic where a physician was infected while on holiday in northern Italy.
Efforts were ongoing to trace personnel and patients who have been in contact with the physician, and some were tested.
The growing number of cases comes despite authorities scrapping or postponing a slew of events across Europe, including the Geneva auto show, Berlin’s ITB travel trade show, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and Milan’s huge annual furniture fair.
The Louvre in Paris remained close yesterday after staff stopped working out of concerns about the outbreak.
Despite discussions about preventative measures, the museum was unable to open, its press office said.
More talks with the staff are scheduled for today.
People line up at the Louvre Museum after the site was closed during a staff meeting about the coronavirus outbreak.
