U.S. coronavirus death toll rises to 19; Italy quarantines northern region under ‘national emergency’

MILAN, Italy -- Italy’s prime minister declared a "national emergency" and announced a sweeping novel coronavirus quarantine early Sunday local time, imposing restrictions on the movement of about a quarter of the country’s population in a bid to contain a widening outbreak.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that people in Lombardy region in northern Italy will be restricted in their travel through April 3.

The Lombardy region, whose biggest city is Milan, includes 15 provinces: Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio nell'Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro e Urbino, Alessandrio, Asti, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Vercelli, Padova, Treviso e Venezia. An estimated 16 million people in those provinces.

"For Lombardy and for the other northern provinces that I have listed there will be a ban for everybody to move in and out of these territories and also within the same territory," Conte said in Italian, according to The Associated Press. "Exceptions will be allowed only for proven professional needs, exceptional cases and health issues."

Italy has been the hardest hit country by the disease outside of China. There have been 233 deaths, the most outside China, and 5,883 total cases, third-most behind China and South Korea, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Meantime, a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in Italy, has tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first positive case for a U.S. servicemember stationed in Europe, according to a statement from U.S. European Command and US Naval Forces Europe-Africa.

The service-member, stationed at a naval support facility in Naples, is currently restricted to their residence, according to the statement, receiving medical and other support in accordance with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Italian guidelines.

Also Saturday, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States continued to mount, bringing the nationwide total to more than 400.

Two more people died in Washington state, putting the number of American fatalities at 19.

There have now been 16 deaths in Washington state, with all but one in King County, according to the state's health department.

A man in his 70s, who was a resident at Life Care Center in Kirkland, and a woman in her 80s, also a Life Care Center resident, were the two people whose deaths were reported Saturday.

The other deaths in the U.S. have been in Florida, where two people died, and in California, where there's been one confirmed death.

The total number of Americans diagnosed with coronavirus is now at least 424, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments. 

Globally, more than 105,000 people in at least 100 countries have been infected with coronavirus amid an outbreak that has sent countries and states scrambling to respond.

At least 3,559 worldwide have died. The majority of the cases and deaths have been in China, where the virus was first detected in Wuhan in December before spreading to every continent except Antarctica.

The outbreak of the virus, known officially as COVID-19, has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.