Italy records sixth death from coronavirus; stock market slides

MILAN (REUTERS) - Two more people in Italy have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, bringing the death toll to six, the European nation said yesterday as the government struggled to contain an outbreak of the illness and financial markets slid on fears over the economic impact.

More than 200 people have come down with the virus since Friday, the latest data showed, the vast majority of them in the wealthy northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

Looking to slow the progress of the highly contagious disease, the authorities in the worst-hit areas have shut schools, universities, museums and cinemas, and banned all public events.

Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy south-east of Italy's financial capital Milan, with a combined population of nearly 50,000, have been placed under effective quarantine, with similar measures in place for a small town in neighbouring Veneto.

Italy's blue-chip index fell 4 per cent, with shares of businesses most at risk from an expected spending slump such as electronic payments group Nexi down more than 6 per cent.

Shares in Milan-based Banco BPM, Italy's third-largest bank rooted in Lombardy, fell nearly 7 per cent. Analysts have warned that the outbreak could shunt Italy's already fragile economy back into recession.

The worst-hit region Lombardy announced 53 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total there to 165 in just four days. Some 22 people had the virus in Veneto, while a handful of infections were also recorded in the adjacent regions of Piedmont and Emilia Romagna.

The sixth fatality was a cancer patient in the northern town of Brescia, according to state broadcaster RAI. Italian media reported that the fifth fatality was 88 and came from the region of Lombardy. The four other people who have died of the illness were also elderly and at least three of them had been suffering serious underlying health problems.