Pakistani coronavirus patient in Italy dies: Foreign Office

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani coronavirus patient in Italy has died, a spokesperson of the Foreign Office said Wednesday.

The Pakistani national passed away in Brescia, about a 100 kilometres from Milan, the spokesperson added.

The Pakistani Consulate in Milan was in touch with the concerned family, as well as the authorities in Italy, the spokesperson said.

10,000 infections, 631 deaths in Italy

Italy remains at the centre of Europe’s outbreak as another jump in cases on Tuesday took the total to more than 10,000 infections and deaths rose by a third to 631.

Millions of Italians woke to deserted streets and shuttered shops after officials imposed a national lock-down, while the government has pledged €25 billion ($28 billion) to fight the virus.

Italy’s lock-down — unprecedented in western Europe — stops people from moving around or leaving the country unless they have a valid medical, family or work reason.

Foreigners are still allowed to leave — many already have — and the last stragglers were racing to catch flights after a slew of cancellations.

“We have people saying they will put us on a flight back,” Mina, a 58-year-old Indian national, told AFP next to Rome’s deserted Colosseum, saying she and her family were “waiting for a call”.

‘Nervous to be around others’
Despite the improving situation in China, officials imposed new measures, decreeing that all international arrivals in Beijing must undergo two weeks of quarantine.

And the US saw the first signs of an emergency footing, with the New York city government forming a containment zone around a suburb at the centre of an outbreak.

National Guard troops were being called in to help deliver food and enforce the zone around New Rochelle, with officials insisting the measures were designed only to facilitate self-quarantine, not to isolate the area.

But some locals were not convinced about the measures.

“It makes people nervous to be around others, it makes people nervous to get inside into businesses and such,” Miles Goldberg, who runs a bar in New Rochelle, told AFP.