A health worker screens the temperature of an airline passenger at Debrecen International Airport in Debrecen, Hungary, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. Bloomberg

Italy is struggling to contain a rapid outbreak of the coronavirus, with new cases confirmed in the capitals of Tuscany and Sicily — the first case south of Rome. As of Tuesday morning, 283 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, Italian media reported, including in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, and Palermo, in Sicily. Seven people have died from the virus in the country. As with many victims elsewhere, those who have died in Italy were elderly or had preexisting health conditions. The number of cases is rising rapidly: On Friday morning, Italy only had 3 confirmed cases before a sharp spike over the weekend. The outbreak was previously contained to the wealthy northern regions of the country but has now spread, with cases recorded in Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Lazio. The outbreak has prompted a blame game between the northern region of Lombardy and the government in Rome. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the outbreak in Italy — the largest outside of Asia — had been caused by a hospital that had not followed proper protocol. He did not name the hospital but it was presumed to be in the north.

"There was a hotspot and it spread from there in part due to the management of a hospital that was not done entirely according to the prudent protocols that are recommended in these cases," Conte said Monday, Italian news agency ANSA reported. But an official in the region of Lombardy, where most of the cases (for now, over 200) are concentrated, hit back by calling the government "incapable" and saying Conte's remarks were "groundless and unacceptable," ANSA said. Meanwhile, opposition politician Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigration Lega party, said Monday on Facebook that "someone will have to answer to the Italian people about what it was supposed to do and was not done." He said that on Jan. 30, his party had started to request obligatory controls on anyone coming from virus-hit countries but had not been listened to.

'Knocking at the door'