A rather nasty video has emerged online that shows a man punching an Asian man on the face after ridiculing him for being Chinese.

Dozens of town in Italy now has been placed under lockdown, after a dozen people died due to complication arising from the deadly coronavirus strain - COVID 19.

The innocent Asian man was targeted inside a supermarket at Lidl in the town of Casalpusterlengo, which is one of 10 towns in the Lombardy region that has been put under lockdown in an effort to contain the spread of COVID 19 virus.

In the video, the Filipino man can be heard repeatedly telling that "I'm Filipino, I'm not Chinese" but in spite of that moments later he is punched by another man, who has been ridiculing him. It was only after other shoppers intervened that the attacker could be controlled.

There seems to have been an increase in discrimination against Asians post the outbreak of the novel coronavirus strain, which started out from the Chinese industrial city of Wuhan.

Italy has put in place stringent measures to contain the spread of the virus. A two-week quarantine has been imposed in several towns in the country. Nobody is allowed to come to the streets without permission, and those breaking the rule face fine and three-month imprisonment.

Military also has been deployed on the outskirts of towns like Codogno – where the virus originated when a 38-year-old man fell ill.

Italy, however, has seen a phenomenal rise in the number of those infected with COVID 19 and being blamed for failing to contain the spread.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was earlier forced to admit that mismanaged from the part of a hospital in the northern town of Codogno contributed to the deadly virus' spread.

Conde allayed fear that the country was unable to handle the crisis. "Our health system is excellent, our precautionary measures are of the utmost rigor and we trust that, by virtue of the combined provisions ... we will promote a containment effect," Conte told reporters on Tuesday.