Italy races to contain COVID-19 outbreak as cases rise over 100
The HinduItaly scrambled on Sunday to contain the biggest outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, shutting off the worst affected towns and cancelling a string of public events as the number of those infected jumped above 100. Prior to Friday, Italy had reported just three cases of the virus – all of them people who had recently arrived from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged last year. Italy's far-right opposition League party has demanded that the government reintroduce border controls to try to prevent new arrivals, but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has rejected this. Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Sunday that officials would meet on Monday to discuss whether Austria should unilaterally re-establish border controls with Italy.