Salvini attacks Italy PM over coronavirus and links to rescue ship

Italy’s far-right former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has attempted to politicise the coronavirus outbreak in the country, attacking the Italian government for not defending the country’s borders.

On Sunday, Salvini, who is also the leader of the League party, called on the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, to resign “if he isn’t able to defend Italy and Italians”.

Salvini cited the docking of the NGO Ocean Viking rescue ship in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo with 276 African migrants onboard to say Italy needed “to make our borders armour-plated”.

What is Covid-19 - the illness that started in Wuhan?

It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.

Have there been other coronaviruses?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.

What are the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus?

The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.

Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?

UK Chief Medical Officers are advising anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and who is experiencing a cough or fever or shortness of breath to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.

Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?

China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere.

How many people have been affected?

As of 20 Februrary, China has recorded 2,118 deaths from the Covid-19 outbreak. Health officials have confirmed 74,576 cases in mainland China in total. More than 12,000 have recovered.

The coronavirus has spread to at least 28 other countries. Japan has 607 cases, including 542 from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, and has recorded one death. There have also been deaths in Hong Kong, Taiwan, France and the Philippines.

There have been nine recorded cases and no fatalities to date in the UK. As of 17 February, a total of 4,501 people have been tested in the UK, of which 4,492 were confirmed negative.

Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?

We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2% at the centre of the outbreak, Hubei province, and less than that elsewhere. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.

Another key unknown is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population – elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems – to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.

Is the outbreak a pandemic?

A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed outside China, but by no means in all 195 countries on the WHO’s list. It is also not spreading within those countries at the moment, except in a very few cases. By far the majority of cases are travellers who picked up the virus in China.

Should we panic?

No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people, and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.

Sarah Boseley, Hannah Devlin and Martin Belam

The rescued asylum seekers were placed in isolation for two weeks to check for coronavirus, while the crew were confined to the ship. None of the cases in Italy, so far, have been linked to African migrants.

During a press conference in Genoa, Salvini said: ‘‘The government has underestimated the coronavirus. Allowing the migrants to land from Africa, where the presence of the virus was confirmed, is irresponsible.” Africa has so far had only one confirmed case of Covid-19, in Egypt.

On Saturday, the Italian authorities implemented draconian measures to try to halt the coronavirus outbreak in the north of the country, including imposing fines on anyone caught entering or leaving outbreak areas.

The number of cases of the virus in Italy has risen to 229 and six people have died. Police are patrolling 11 towns – mostly in the Lombardy region, where the first locally transmitted case emerged – that have been in lockdown since Friday night.

It is not the first time Salvini has exploited the coronavirus crisis to criticise the government and migrants. In late January, he attacked Conte over the landing of other migrants in Italy when the virus had not yet broken out in the country.

‘‘In Civitavecchia, 6,000 cruise passengers are stuck onboard for two suspected cases, while in Taranto the ports are wide open for 400 alleged refugees from who knows where. We must armour-plate our borders,” Salvini said on 30 January.

Referring to the League’s political exploitation of the outbreak, Paola de Micheli, the minister of infrastructure, called Salvini “a jackal”.

“Politics should be united,” De Micheli told journalists on Monday before the Democratic party’s national assembly in Rome. “Those like Salvini, who aspire to have a high-level institutional role, prove they are not up to the job.’’

Meanwhile, Conte has made it known he contacted Salvini but that the leader of the League did not answer his call.

“Yesterday, I also wanted to inform the opposition forces of the measures we were taking,” said Conte during an interview with Italian Tv La7. “I spoke to Giorgia Meloni [leader of the Brothers of Italy party] and I was unable to reach Berlusconi, who called me back today. The only leader I have not managed to reach is Salvini. I called him yesterday and sent him a message. He did not reply. If he had the decency to answer, I would have explained to him why stricter measures could not have been implemented before.”