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Authorities in Palermo have announced the closure of all the schools at least until Monday, after a woman from Bergamo, who was on holiday with her friends in Sicily, tested positive for Convid-19. It is the first case in the south of the country. The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, announced an investigation is ongoing to check and eventually test people she has been in contact with during her stay in the Sicilian capital. Her husband and a friend of the patient tested positive for Convid-19 too.

There have been 11 deaths as Italy’s coronavirus outbreak has spread from Lombardy and Veneto to Sicily, Tuscany and Liguria as Premier Giuseppe Conte said the country would emerge from the crisis with its head held high. Some 322 people have been infected with the virus in Italy, according to the Civil protection chief.

The first case of coronavirus has been registered in Liguria, the regional government said Tuesday.

Only 3% of Italian coronavirus patients have died, and all of them had pre-existing conditions, Walter Ricciardi of the World Health Organisation told a Rome press conference Tuesday. “We must scale back this great alarm,” said Ricciardi, a former director at Italy’s Higher Health Institute (ISS).

Of 100 sick people, 80 get well of their own accord, 15 have serious but manageable problems, 5% are extremely serious, of which 3% die. Furthermore, as you know, all the people who died already had serious health conditions.

He said the alarm “is right, is not to be underestimated, but the disease must be placed within the correct terms”.

