Th departure of an Italian
military plane set to bring back 30 of the 35 Italians on board
the cruise ship Diamond Princess off Japan amid the coronavirus
emergency has been delayed from Thursday to Friday.
Meanwhile 55 Italians who returned from Wuhan on February 3
are set to leave quarantine at the Cecchignola military complex
outside Rome on Thursday or Friday, the defence ministry said.
Five Italian crew including the captain are remaining aboard
the Princess in Yokohama.
The ship owners said Thursday that the captain, Gennaro Arma,
"is in good health and is leading his team in this extraordinary
situation".
Tests are still in course and the return of the Italians has
been postponed to Friday, well-informed sources told ANSA.
Two foreign nationals aboard the Princess, an 80-year-old
couple, died of the virus Thursday, Japanese TV reported.
One Italian passenger has tested positive for the deadly
virus. He will be brought back on a separate, later
biocontainment flight.
An earlier Italian flight carried medical personnel who
examined the Italians.
The medical team included two women from Rome's Spallanzani
infectious-disease hospital: an anesthetist and a
infectivologist.
Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri said that the Italian
government flight will bring back 56-57 former passengers on the
Diamond Princess cruise ship from Yokohama, including the "30 or
so" Italians.
Sileri told a live broadcast on ANSA's Facebook page on the
coronavirus emergency that the government had sent ahead one
flight taking health professionals and other experts to Yokohama
so they can run tests on the former passengers.
He said the passengers would be repatriated on a second
flight.
"When the second flight, which will probably take off from
Italy this evening, arrives in Yokohama, the people who are
meant to will be brought to Italy," Sileri said.
"It's about 30 Italians and 26-27 people from other European
nationalities, such as Poland, France and Germany, for a total
of 56-57 passengers, as they are negative for the coronavirus
test".
Sileri said the passengers would "probably" get back to Rome
on Thursday evening, after which the Europeans would travel to
their home countries.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio personally wished the medical
team a good flight.
He was accompanied by the head of the civil protection
department, Angelo Borrelli, the government's coronavirus
commissioner.
"I assure you we will bring our nationals back to Italy as
soon as possible," said Di Maio.
The 500 or so passengers on board the Diamond Princess who
have tested negative for the virus started disembarking on
Wednesday.
The death toll across China meanwhile jumped to 2,118 after
114 new deaths were reported - most in Hubei Province around
Wuhan.
Two young Italians at Rome's Spallanzani Hospital are both
in "excellent conditions of health and mood," the latest medical
bulletin from the infectious-disease hospital said Wednesday.
A young Italian researcher is being treated for the
coronavirus.
He has not been named.
The second Italian is 17-year-old Niccolò from Grado near
Venice.
He was blocked twice in China because he had a fever.
Niccolò has come out negative in two coronavirus tests.
A Chinese couple with the virus are sill improving and may
come out of the ICU in a few days, a medical bulletin said.
Another Italian who landed from another cruise ship in
Cambodia is under voluntary quarantine at his home in Sanremo.
He has tested negative for the virus.
The government is ready to cut its 2020 growth forecast of
0.6% if the impact of the coronavirus is strong, Economy
Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Wednesday.
"If the coronavirus has a significant impact, the +0.6% could
be revised downward," he said.
"If the impact is limited and we manage to implement policies
to relaunch the economy, the 0.6% will be reachable, on the
other hand".
In a best-case scenario, the minister said, growth may even
be higher than 0.6% this year.
The International Monetary Fund said the coronavirus
emergency was liable to hit the fragile global economy hard.
The coronavirus epidemic is set to have a big effect on the
Italian economy and will probably push it into recession this
year, Nomura said in a report on Monday.
"Considering the low growth rate that Italy started this year
with, we expect the country to go into recession in 2020, with
GDP down 0.1% on the previous year (well below the 0.6% rise
forecast by the government)," the finance group said.
It said Italy's GDP could drop 0.9% this year in the
worst-case scenario.
The EU recently cut its Italy growth forecast for this year
from 0.4% to 0.3%.
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