Covid-19: surge in cases in Italy and South Korea makes pandemic look more likely

A surge in cases of covid-19 in northern Italy on 24 February heightened fears that the emerging infection has passed the tipping point and the world is on the brink of a pandemic. By 25 February a seventh person infected with covid-19 died in Italy. He was an 80 year old heart patient, who died at the Sacco hospital in Milan. Italian civil protection officials said 219 people had now tested positive for the virus. Police manned checkpoints around quarantined towns in Italy’s north and panicking residents stocked up on food as the country became the focal point of the outbreak in Europe and fears of its cross border spread. The northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Friuli Venezia Giulia have now closed schools, universities, museums, monuments, and libraries, and banned public events that attract big crowds, including football …