In the day following President Trump’s announcement of a travel advisory to parts of northern Italy, the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country grew by 50%.
Italian health authorities announced on Sunday that the total number of individuals confirmed to have the coronavirus expanded to 1,694, a 50% jump from the day before. The Italian death toll also spiked to 34 after five people infected with the illness died within 24 hours. A total of 83 patients in the country have fully recovered from the virus.
Giovanni Rezza, director of the infective illness department at the National Health Institute, said the dramatic infection rate in Italy was aligned with what the agency projected, adding, “This acceleration was expected, unfortunately.”
Trump announced on Saturday that he was placing regions of Italy and South Korea under a travel advisory and asked that no nonessential travel take place to and from the countries. He also placed a travel ban on anyone who had visited Iran in the last 14 days. Iran has been one of the hardest-hit nations outside of China, where the outbreak started. China was the first nation Trump put under a travel ban due to the virus.
Italy has been singled out as the location of the infection of at least one U.S. citizen diagnosed with the virus. A person from Rhode Island started showing symptoms after returning to the United States from Italy. Italy has also been questioned for the illness plaguing Pope Francis, who had to miss several services due to a cough. The Vatican has denied that the Pope caught the coronavirus.
So far, more than 88,000 individuals have confirmed cases of the coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19 virus. Around 3,000 individuals have died because of their infections, including one man in the U.S. The majority of deaths have occurred in China.
