BRITAIN said yesterday that people who had visited northern Italy should self-isolate if they had any flu-like symptoms after Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus so far flared up in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

“Those who have been to northern Italy — that is essentially anybody who has been to Italy north of Pisa — should, if they have flu-like symptoms, self isolate,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

“If people have been to the affected areas that the Italian government has quarantined, then they should self isolate whether or not they have symptoms,” Hancock said.

A seventh person infected with COVID-19 has died in Italy, officials said Monday, as the government struggled to contain an outbreak of the illness and financial markets slid on fears over the economic impact.

News agency ANSA said the latest person to die was an 80-year-old man who had been taken to hospital last week in Lodi after suffering a heart attack. Doctors believe he caught the virus there from another patient.

A total of 229 people have come down with the new coronavirus in Italy since Friday in what is the worst explosion of the disease outside of Asia.

The vast majority of cases are in wealthy northern regions, with almost a dozen towns, totaling a combined population of nearly 50,000, in Lombardy and one small town in neighboring Veneto placed under effective quarantine.

Authorities across the north, close to Italy’s financial capital Milan, have shut schools, universities, museums and cinemas for at least a week and banned public gatherings. Four Serie A football fixtures over the weekend, including Inter Milan vs Sampdoria, were postponed. The famed Venice carnival was finished two days earlier than planned and Giorgio Armani’s show at Milan Fashion Week on Sunday went ahead without any media or buyers present as a precaution.                  (SD-Agencies)