Italy scrambled Sunday to check the spread of Europe's first major outbreak of the new viral disease amid rapidly rising numbers of infections and a third death, calling off the popular Venice Carnival, scrapping major league soccer matches in the stricken area and shuttering theaters, including Milan's legendary La Scala.
Concern was also on the rise in neighboring Austria, which halted all rail traffic to and from Italy for several hours after suspicion that a train at its southern border with Italy had two passengers possibly infected with the virus on board, authorities said. Austria's interior ministry said it had been informed by Italy's railway company that two passengers had fever and stopped the train at the Brenner crossing before it could enter Austria.
However, just before midnight Austria's Federal Railways announced on Twitter the ban had been lifted. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the two people suspected of being infected with the virus on the Eurocity 86 train from Venice to Munich had tested negative and the train would be allowed to continue on its way, according to the ORF broadcast network.
The decision to call off Venice Carnival was announced by Veneto regional Gov. Luca Zaia as the number of confirmed virus cases soared to 152, the largest number outside Asia.
Road blocks were set up in at least some of 10 towns in Lombardy at the epicenter of the outbreak, including in Casalpusterlengo, to keep people from leaving or arriving. Even trains transiting the area weren't allowed to stop.
Buses, trains and other forms of public transport — including boats in Venice — were being disinfected, Zaia told reporters. Museums were also ordered to shut down after Sunday in Venice, a top tourist draw anytime of the year, as well as in neighboring Lombardy, which, with at least 110 confirmed cases, is the epicenter of the viral outbreak.
Authorities said three people in Venice have tested positive for the viral disease known as COVID-19, all of them in their late 80s and who were hospitalized in critical condition.
Other northern regions with smaller numbers of cases are Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont.
Italy's first two cases were a Chinese tourist couple, diagnosed earlier this month and reported recovering in a Rome hospital.
Authorities expressed frustration that they haven't been able to track down the source of the virus that is spreading in the north and which surfaced last week when an Italian man in his late 30s in Codogno became critically ill.
