A second patient infected with the new coronavirus died in Italy, the ANSA news agency said, citing sources of medical care in the region, as the epidemic has now spread in the north of the country, of which at least 17 people were reported to have the virus.
The victim was a woman who lived in the Lombardy region of Milan, reports ANSA. Her death is said to have occurred a few hours after the death of a 77-year-old man overnight near Padua, in the neighbouring region of Veneto.
The man was the first European victim of the disease, said the Italian Minister of Health.
Health officials announced yesterday 15 cases of the virus in the northern region of Lombardy and two in neighbouring Veneto, where Padua is located, the first known cases of local transmission in the country.
None of the infected are believed to have travelled to China, the epicentre of the new horrific disease, and local authorities in Italy have contained the outbreak.
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