ROME/PARIS/MADRID (REUTERS, AFP, BLOOMBERG) - Several European countries have recorded their first coronavirus cases, with many new infections surfacing in the region appearing to be linked to the growing outbreak in Italy.
Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Spain and Switzerland all reported new cases involving people who had been to Italy. The first cases in the North African nation of Algeria and Brazil in Latin America were also imported from Italy.
The new cases show how far and fast the illness - first identified in China last month - can spread. Italy is now Europe's worst-hit nation, with more than 370 infections and 12 deaths. All who have died so far were elderly and most had underlying health problems.
Children in the country were also, for the first time, found with the illness, officials said on Wednesday (Feb 26). In Lombardy, home to the nation's financial capital Milan, four children were infected, including a four-year-old girl.
The illness - which first emerged in the country in Lombardy and Veneto - has now spread to seven other regions, including Sicily in the far south.
Vast swathes of the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy, stretching from Milan to Venice, remained in a virtual lockdown on Wednesday (Feb 26). The authorities have shut schools, universities, museums, cinemas and theatres across much of the north.
Many countries have advised their nationals not to visit northern Italy, and hoteliers have reported a wave of cancellations.
"We should stay calm," said Dr Elisabetta Jacona, a Milan resident and doctor.
"The only advice I can give, as a doctor, is telling people who are more at risk, elderly people or people with previous pathologies... to avoid going out."
Greece's first case
In Greece on Wednesday, health authorities said the country's first coronavirus case was a 38-year-old woman who had recently travelled to northern Italy.
“She is in good health and being monitored by a team of excellent colleagues in Thessaloniki,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Dr Sotiris Tsiodras, a leading expert on infectious diseases. “Her contacts are being tracked. Close contacts will be placed under voluntary quarantine and their health will be monitored."
In France, a 60-year-old man on Wednesday became the first French victim of the virus in the country.
The man died overnight after being rushed to a Paris hospital in serious condition on Tuesday evening, the health ministry said.
The man's death brings the death toll in France to two. The first victim was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist, who died in mid-February.
In Britain, the authorities have started random tests for the coronavirus on flu patients in order to have an early warning system in place in case the outbreak becomes more widespread in the country.
"We're widening our vigilance because of the apparent spread of the virus in countries outside of mainland China," Public Health England's medical director Paul Cosford, told BBC Radio on Wednesday. Britain has so far had 13 coronavirus cases.
Europe on high alert
Across Europe, nations have kicked into high alert to limit the outbreak from spreading further.
In Spain, where the total number of cases has climbed to 10, officials kept about 700 guests confined to a Canary Islands hotel as they undergo tests.
Still, for now European countries are not actively considering closing borders. Health ministers from Italy and neighbouring countries meeting in Rome on Tuesday agreed that border closures aren’t currently an appropriate measure to stem the spread of the virus, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said in a TV interview.
Health experts who briefed the ministers “said that this doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t help,” and sharing information and preventive measures are more important, Mr Anschober said.
Recession on the horizon?
Analysts have warned that the outbreak could shunt Italy's fragile economy into its fourth recession in 12 years.
Italy is working on a package of measures to help sustain the economy.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his government will try to help businesses harmed by the outbreak in sectors from manufacturing to tourism, according to an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper. About a third of Italy’s output comes from Lombardy and Veneto, the two most-hit regions.
As the fallout spread, Milan postponed its design week – one of its busiest events with hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world – from April to June.
The region’s other countries are also studying the economic impact of the spread of the virus. In Germany, the DIHK industry group said exporters in Europe’s biggest economy are already unsettled by events in Italy. The southern European nation is Germany’s fifth-largest trading partner with a volume of more than €125 billion ($136 billion).
“The impact on the German economy should not be underestimated,” Mr Volker Treier, DIHK head of foreign trade, said in a statement.
In Austria, travel agents are in talks with trade unions on imposing reduced working hours on around 10,000 employees, the head of the commerce chamber WKO, Mr Karlheinz Kopf, was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency. The travel agents’ business has “almost ground to a halt,” and bookings “plummeted dramatically”, Mr Kopf said.
