Wed 04 March 2020:
The Italian health ministry is planning a ban on kissing to stop the spread of the coronavirus which has infected more 2,500 in the country and killed 79.
The guidance is to be circulated nationwide today, according to La Repubblica, and includes advice to stand three feet apart at all times, even indoors, to protect against saliva droplets which can transmit the disease.
Meanwhile the Italian government was today considering shutting down all of its schools throughout the country, a source revealed. At the moment only schools in the northern regions most affected by the epidemic are closed.
Ten percent of virus patients in Italy were in intensive care with respiratory problems, the health chief of the Lombardy region in northern Italy has said.
He added that they were almost exclusively over 65 years old and asked all elderly people in the region to leave home as little as possible for the next two weeks.
Giovanni Rezza, the head of the infectious diseases department at the national health institute, said that schools were a key area to keep control of.
‘Not because children are vulnerable — they don’t suffer as much as adults — but they can transmit it to parents and grandparents,’ he said.
He also had a warning for countries like the UK where the virus is starting to spread, saying: ‘Be very careful and contain clusters as soon as possible.’
Officials in Italy also said it could take up to two weeks to know whether measures including quarantines in 11 northern towns were working.
Nearby in France the latest death was reported in the Oise department northeast of Paris, in the country’s most significant cluster.
With at least 191 cases, including 47 in the Oise, France is the second worst affected country in Europe after Italy.
The Louvre in Paris shut its doors for a second day yesterday after staff walked out over health risks.
In China, the number of new virus cases dropped again Tuesday, with just 125 new cases after a six-week low of 202 a day earlier.
It’s still by far the hardest-hit country, with 80,151 cases and 2,943 deaths.
The virus has been detected in at least 70 countries with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths.
The U.S.’ count of COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 in 11 states.
President Donald Trump and his Cabinet met with pharmaceutical executives Monday to discuss how to speed the search for a vaccine.
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