First Europeans die from coronavirus in Italy

Fears mounted on Saturday over the rise of new cases and fatalities outside China from the coronavirus outbreak, as the World Health Organization warned of a shrinking window to stem the spread of the deadly disease.

The warning came as the first Europeans died from the new COVID-19 strain, which first emerged in December in central China but has now spread to over 25 countries and caused more than a dozen deaths outside the country.

A 78-year old Italian man died after testing positive for the virus  just hours after 10 towns were locked down following a flurry of new cases. A second Italian victim, a woman from Lombardy, was confirmed to have died later on Saturday morning.

Iranian health authorities on Saturday reported a fifth death from the new virus that emerged in China, and said the fatality was from among 10 new confirmed cases of the virus in Iran.

It came as a number of cases were reported across the Middle East, including the first infections in Israel and Lebanon.

A second person died in South Korea, authorities reported Saturday, as the number of cases in the country spiked.

The Italian man from the Veneto region who had tested positive for the virus died in hospital, where he had recovered some 10 days earlier for an unrelated health issue, Italy's health minister said.

Adriano Trevisan was a retired bricklayer and one of two with the disease in the region, while 15 other people were discovered to have caught the virus in Lombardy, which took immediate measures to isolate affected areas.

Five doctors and 10 other people tested positive for the virus in Lombardy, after apparently frequenting the same bar and group of friends, with two other cases in Veneto, authorities said at a press conference.

None of those infected were believed to have travelled to China, the epicentre of the new illness, and local authorities in Italy scrambled to contain the outbreak.

South Korea on Saturday said the number of viral infections had more than doubled to 433, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the fourth-largest city where schools were closed and worshipers and others told to avoid mass gatherings.

Samsung Electronics said on Saturday that one coronavirus case had been confirmed at its mobile device factory complex in the southeastern city of Gumi, causing a shutdown of its entire facility there until Monday morning.

Authorities in Japan confirmed 14 new cases,  including a junior high school teacher who went to work even though she had symptoms, raising fears she may have spread it among students.

Initial infections were linked to China, but new cases in South Korea and Iran don't show a clear connection to travel there.

In Lombardy, the government has banned all public events and closed schools in several small towns southeast of Italy's financial capital Milan.

"We had prepared a plan in recent days, because it was clear what has happened could somehow happen," Health Minister Speranza said as doctors tested hundreds of people who might have come into contact with the coronavirus sufferers.

Speaking on the margins of a European Union meeting in Brussels before the Italian fatality was announced, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would meet the chiefs of Italy's civil protection agency, and that the situation was under control.

"We were ready for this (outbreak) ... the people have no need to be worried, we will adopt increasingly severe and precautionary measures," he said.

HEALTH WORKERS

Local officials said the first infected patient in Lombardy, a 38-year-old man from the town of Lodi, fell ill after meeting a friend who had recently visited China.

That man has since tested negative for the disease, but doctors were investigating whether he carried the virus and subsequently recovered without showing any symptoms, said Lombardy regional councillor Giulio Gallera.

The pregnant wife of the initial patient and one of his friends were infected, along with three others admitted to hospital overnight suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. Officials later said five health workers who had come into contact with the virus carriers had themselves fallen ill.

Zaia said it was unclear how the two individuals in Veneto might have caught the disease. "There was certainly no contact with the people infected in Lodi," he said.

Prior to Friday, Italy had reported just three cases of the virus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Two Chinese tourists from Wuhan tested positive in Rome in late January, while an Italian who returned home on a special flight repatriating some 56 nationals from the same city was hospitalised a week later.

After the first confirmed cases, Italy suspended all direct flights to and from China, provoking the ire of the Beijing government.

"Diplomatic and economic issues are fundamental but health comes first," Speranza said on Friday as he announced the government's latest measures.

All those who have entered Italy after visiting areas in China affected by the coronavirus will have to stay home under surveillance, the health ministry said in a statement.

China has had more than 76,000 cases of the coronavirus and 2,345 people have died, most of them in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan.