THE first man confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 has been hospitalized in the Lodi area, in Codogno, for a serious type of pneumonia. Test results arrived Thursday night, February 20. The 38-year-old patient had not recently visited China. In a little more than three days the coronavirus has spread quickly in the north of the country and 400 people are currently infected. Twelve people, notably with underlying health conditions, have died.
Affected regions
There are cases of coronavirus in most major northern regions. The bulk of the cases, 258, is in Lombardy, followed by Veneto, 71, Emilia Romagna, 47, and Liguria 11. In Lazio there are three cases, two Chinese tourists hospitalized on January 31, who are recovering and will soon be discharged, and an Italian national repatriated with a special flight from China. That patient never exhibited serious symptoms and has by now recovered. At the moment twelve elderly people with underlying health conditions have died.
The hotbeds
The first hotbed of contagion emerged in the Lodi area, between Codogno, Casalpusterlengo and Castiglione d'Adda, spread by the thirty-eight year old male, who went to the hospital twice before being hospitalized, both on Sunday the 16th and on Thursday the 20th, and also infected his pregnant wife. Some of the doctors and medical staff who attended him became infected, as did some patients and visitors to the facility. Amongst the infected are friends and acquaintances of the man, who then spread the disease further. This is how the coronavirus has spread through a wide area, reaching Piedmont, more areas in Lombardy and the region of Emilia-Romagna. The cases reported in the Piacenza area are related to the ones in the Lodi area. There are three more cases in Milan, one of which has not yet been confirmed. Another outbreak emerged in the town of Vo' Euganeo, in Veneto. At the moment they are investigating a possible link between this outbreak, which appears to have originated in a bar in the town of Codogno, and the one in Lombardy. Another outbreak has been reported in Dolo, in the province of Venice.
