Dominican Expat Infects Over 125 People With COVID-19 In Italy's North

A young man from the Dominican Republic with permanent residence in Italy has practically created a new hotbed of COVID-19 in the country's north, having infected at least 126 people by this point, Italian epidemiologist Fabrizio Faggiano said on Tuesday

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th October, 2020) A young man from the Dominican Republic with permanent residence in Italy has practically created a new hotbed of COVID-19 in the country's north, having infected at least 126 people by this point, Italian epidemiologist Fabrizio Faggiano said on Tuesday.

Faggiano spoke at a national symposium on medical law in the northwestern Italian city of Alessandria, when commenting on Italy's imported coronavirus cases.

As told by the epidemiologist, the young man, who permanently resides in the northwestern Italian city of Vercelli, returned to Italy from the Dominican Republic in mid-July and did not self-isolate for 14 days, as required by law. Instead, he carried on with his normal life style and did not even used masks, thus becoming the "patient zero" of a whole new hotbed.

First, he infected a married couple in a public pool who then transmitted the virus to 33 colleagues at work who, in turn, passed it on to another eight people. On July 26, the Dominican man visited a night club in Vercelli where 58 people ended up contracting the virus from him. Some of these people passed the virus further after going to another bar that night. At least eight cases were traced back to these people.

One of these cases later attended a funeral where they infected six other people who, in turn, infected another six people.�

According to Faggiano, the authorities were able to confirm 126 cases originating from the Dominican patient over the past 25 days. The doctor suspects there were other transmission chains which have not yet been identified.

During the initial wave of the coronavirus at the beginning of this year, Italy emerged as Europe's worst outbreak, with its northern regions hit particularly hard. It was the first European country to lock down completely as a nation in early March.

The country has managed to curb the spread of the virus and lift most of the restrictions during the summer. The fall brought a resurgence of the infection all over Europe, and Italian authorities to reinstate some of the restrictions, including limited operation hours and rules of conduct for cafes and other entertainment businesses.

For the first time since the spring peak of COVID-19, Italy reported over 5,000 new cases per one day last Friday. As of Tuesday, Italian authorities have confirmed nearly 360,000 cases, including 36,205 deaths and 240,600 recoveries.