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As Italy Battles Coronavirus, Neighbors Mull Border Controls

Jamie Dettmer

   ROME - Italian officials are scrambling to contain an outbreak of
   coronavirus, or COVID-19, after separate cases were confirmed Tuesday
   in Tuscany and Sicily, which is hundreds of kilometers away from the
   north of the country, where nearly a dozen towns are on lockdown
   following 10 virus-related deaths.

   The lack of a clear source of the outbreak in the affluent northern
   regions of Lombardy and Veneto is raising the alarm of Italy's public
   health officials, who have been hunting for "Patient Zero," the first
   person in the country to be infected with the virus.

   The surge of 283 positive cases in parts of northern Italy in recent
   days is prompting anxiety in neighboring countries with officials
   saying coronavirus is "knocking at the door."

   Austria is considering stopping all rail traffic from Italy and
   imposing other controls on its border with its southern neighbor. Two
   Italian emigres who live in the Austrian region of Tyrol, and who
   recently returned from a trip to northern Italy, tested positive for
   the virus, according to a local health authority spokeswoman.

   Croatia's prime minister confirmed the country's first COVID-19 case
   Tuesday. Hundreds of tourists at a hotel in the Spanish resort of
   Tenerife are reportedly being tested after another vacationer, an
   Italian from Lombardy, tested positive.

   British officials announced that anyone who has visited northern Italy
   in the past two weeks should "self-isolate" at home, if he or she
   develops flu-like symptoms. That's in line with official guidance for
   those who have returned from vacations or business trips to China and
   South Korea. Britain's health minister, Matt Hancock, said he didn't
   know of any Britons trapped in the nearly dozen northern towns being
   quarantined by the Italian government, but the "significant outbreak"
   of cases was "worrying," he added in a broadcast interview.

   Two schools in the English county of Cheshire decided Tuesday to shut
   down after some of their students returned from ski trips in Italy. So
   far, 13 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19; four were
   travelers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

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