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Silvio Berlusconi, Other High-Profile Italians Test Positive for COVD-19

Jamie Dettmer

   Italy was the first European country to feel the full force of the
   coronavirus pandemic, and Italians had hoped to be first on the
   continent to be able to return to normal life. But the country is
   witnessing some alarming viral spikes -- the danger of which is being
   underscored by the rising number of celebrities and politicians testing
   positive.

   Former prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi has become the
   latest high-profile Italian to test positive. A spokesman for his
   center-right Forza Italia party said that two tests had come back
   positive, but that Berlusconi doesn't feel unwell and has no fever and
   "is continuing to work from his home in Arcore," his estate near Milan.

   Two of Berlusconi's children, Luigi and Barbara, also have tested
   positive.

   Berlusconi, who turns 84 at the end of the month, is suspected of
   contracting the virus while vacationing at his luxury property on the
   island of Sardinia. That's where he met with friends, who subsequently
   tested positive, including businessman Flavio Briatore, the former
   managing director of the Benetton Formula One racing team. Briatore was
   briefly hospitalized in Milan, and his Sardinian nightclub was closed
   last month after several employees also tested positive for
   coronavirus.

   Public health officials are blaming spikes in cases last month on
   nightclub attendance and social gatherings, as well as on Italians
   returning from overseas vacations. Six hundred new infections were
   recorded Saturday, almost 800 on Sunday, and the daily tally of new
   cases has continued to rise with 1,326 fresh cases recorded Wednesday.
   These are numbers not seen since early May when the country was still
   under lockdown, according to the country's Health Ministry.

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