Lockdown in Italy as first European man dies with coronavirus

Over 50,000 people have been ordered to stay indoors in areas in and around Lombardy after an Italian man was the first European man to die with the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in China.

Ten towns in Italy were locked down following a rise in new cases of infection. 

The 78-year-old victim lost his life in hospital on Friday. He was from the Veneto region and had tested positive earlier in the week. Adriano Trevisan was a retired bricklayer and one of two people with the disease in the region, while 15 other people were discovered to have caught the virus in Lombardy.

The Veneto region will be blocked off and 3,300 inhabitants in Vo' Euganeo will be tested.

All public activities, such as carnival celebrations, church masses, and sporting events will be banned for up to a week and until tests are conclusive.

"Everything is under control... the government is maintaining an extremely high level of precaution," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday. 

In Casalpusterlengo, a large electronic message board outside the town hall read "Coronavirus: the population is invited to remain indoors as a precaution".

The first town to be shuttered was Codogno, just south of Milan, where three people tested positive for the virus, including a 38-year-old man and his pregnant wife.

Some 250 people are in isolation after coming into contact with the new cases, according to the Lombardy region.

Trenord regional railway said its trains would no longer be stopping in three stations in the affected area.

Since December, COVID-19 has killed more than 2,200 people in China, the epidemic's epicentre. It has spread in over 27 countries.

Some hours after the virus claimed the first life of a European, another patient in Italy lost her life, a female in the Lombardy region.