Photo Story: Bar in Rome bans Chinese due to coronavirus outbreak
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There is consternation in Italy after a bar in the capital banned access to people from China. Italian media have reported various cases of hostility toward Chinese persons due to the current virus out break.
Chinese people in western countries where there have been cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have said they have been the target of racist abuse as paranoia mounts over the outbreak
According to the Italian health authorities, first two cases of the coronavirus infection has been registered in the country.
A sign bans access to people from China in a bar in central Rome, Italy, 31 January 2020. EPA-EFE/CLAUDIO PERI
“Unfortunately, one of the inevitable impacts of this illness is xenophobia,” Marco Wong, a local councillor in the Tuscan town of Prato, home to a large Chinese population, told the Guardian.
“Parents aren’t sending their children to school if there are Chinese classmates and people are writing on the internet not to go to Chinese shops and restaurants. There is also a lot of fake news spreading – for example, an audio of an Italian guy claiming that he is in Wuhan and that he knows of a secret laboratory where this virus was created.”
The coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, originating from Wuhan, China, has spread to all the 31 provinces of China as well as more than a dozen countries in the world. The outbreak of coronavirus has so far claimed 213 lives and infected more than 8,000 others, according to media reports.
Italy’s cabinet today decided to declare a state of emergency after the first two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the country, a government source said.
Two Chinese tourists in Rome have contracted the virus and have been put in an isolation unit of a hospital specialized in infectious diseases and viruses, while authorities are trying to piece together the itinerary of their trip across Italy.
