LONDON/ROME • The coronavirus outbreak has reached Europe's busiest airport, after two British Airways luggage handlers at London Heathrow tested positive for the disease.

The two workers are recovering in isolation at home, British Airways parent IAG said in an e-mail on Friday. Some of the luggage handlers' colleagues are being tested, said a person familiar with the matter.

The presence of the epidemic at such a heavily traversed junction is likely to escalate concerns about air travel after the virus' spread caused people in Europe and the United States to pull back.

The International Air Transport Association warned last week that carriers may lose US$113 billion (S$156 billion) in sales this year, almost four times greater than its estimate of the epidemic's impact from just two weeks earlier.

"The welfare of our passengers and colleagues is our top priority," a London Heathrow spokesman said.

A team from Public Health England, the health agency that confirmed the cases, is in place at Heathrow to respond to any incidents, the company said.

The airport is cleaning surfaces and providing hand sanitisers to workers "to protect themselves and our passengers".

British Airways, the biggest operator at London Heathrow, has scrapped all flights to China through next month, and said it will pare back on destinations in Europe, Japan and South Korea.

It has also reduced services on its usually lucrative transatlantic route to New York. The carrier said last week that it would scrap change fees on all new bookings made between March 3 and 16, to spur travellers to book tickets.

In Italy, Europe's worst-hit country, another 49 coronavirus deaths were reported on Friday. The death toll was the highest of the two-week crisis and took the country's fatalities total to 197 - the biggest outside China. The total number of infections grew to 4,636.

Italy on Saturday began recruiting retired doctors as part of urgent efforts to bolster the healthcare system with 20,000 additional staff and fight the epidemic. The measure was one of several adopted by the government during an all-night Cabinet meeting.

VIRUS FIGURES IN EUROPE

The 10 European countries with the most coronavirus infections: 1. ITALY: 4,636 infected, 197 dead 2. GERMANY: 717 infected 3. FRANCE: 653 infected, 9 dead 4. SPAIN: 454 infected, 8 dead 5. SWITZERLAND: 216 infected, 1 dead 6. BELGIUM: 169 infected 7. BRITAIN: 164 infected, 2 dead 8. SWEDEN: 137 infected 9. NORWAY: 136 infected 10. NETHERLANDS: 128 infected, 1 dead • Figures updated as of 9pm yesterday SOURCE: WORLDOMETER

The accelerating spread of the coronavirus has emptied Italian train stations and airports while turning usually crowded parts of Rome into ghost towns.

The sharp drop in visitor numbers is wreaking havoc on the Italian tourism industry and contributing to fears that the anaemic economy is about to tip back into recession.

But the government's most immediate concern is that the coronavirus infections that had been largely contained to pockets of the richer north will start spreading into the poorer and less medically equipped south.

The World Health Organisation concluded a mission to Italy on Friday by recommending the government keep "a strong focus on containment measures".

The government said its medical recruitment drive should double the staff of hospitals' respiratory and infectious disease departments.

It should also increase the number of intensive care beds from 5,000 to 7,500 in the coming days.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE