Italy confirms first death from coronavirus, towns under lockdown

An elderly Italian man infected with a deadly coronavirus outbreak died on February 21, becoming the first European death linked to the virulent virus that has spread across the globe. After some hours of the incident, 10 Italian towns were reportedly locked down after a rise in new cases in the country. The 78-year-old from the Veneto region who had tested positive for the virus died in the hospital where he had been admitted for 10 days due to health-related issues, according to Italy's health minister. 

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Preventive measures taken

Adriano Trevisan was a retired bricklayer and one of the two people in the region affected with the deadly coronavirus. 15 other people were discovered to have caught the virus in the Lombardy region which immediately took preventive measures to isolate the affected areas. Trevisan, hails from the village of Vo' Euganeo near Padua, had been diagnosed with the virus on an initial test. 

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Death toll soared past 2300

The death toll in China soared more than 2300 on February 21 after the country confirmed that more people died in Hubei province, which is believed to be the epicentre of the deadly outbreak. The majority of deaths were reported from the provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, according to the Hubei's health commission. Nearly 77000 have been infected by the new coronavirus in China and more cases have been reported in over 25 countries. The health commission in Hubei said that there were 411 new cases of the virus in the province with 319 in Wuhan and others were spread out across several other cities.

China said on Thursday that it has modified its method of counting the patients with novel coronavirus and will only include those people diagnosed by laboratory tests. The novel coronavirus dubbed as COVID-19 first originated in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of the disease in late December 2019. The disease has spread to more than 20 countries worldwide since the outbreak.

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