Italy faces a sudden surge in covid-19 cases

Italy faces a sudden surge in covid-19 cases

• surge
  • （数量的）急剧上升

With disconcerting suddenness, Italy has found itself the European country worst affected by covid-19. By February 23rd the number of people infected with the coronavirus that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan had leapt to 152, jump of around 100 within a day. Three of them all in their late 60s or older, have already died. Italy now has the third-most cases in the world, after China itself, where 77,000 have been infected, and South Korea, where the total has surged to more than 600.

• disconcert
  • causing a feeling of disturbance, embarrassment, or confusion; perturbing; worrying 令人不安的
• emerge
  • 出现
• leap
  • 骤增，剧增
• surge
  • 急剧上升

Two clusters of infection have emerged, both in the north. One is south-east of Milan, around the town of Codogno; the other is south-west of Venice, near Padua. Both areas have been quarantined, restricting the movement of around 50,000 people. An extra 500 police officers have been sent to carry out patrols and man roadblocks on roads to and from the two areas.

• cluster
  • （同类物丛生或聚集的）团，簇，串
    • a leukemia cluster 白血病高发区
• quarantine
  • 检疫，隔离
• carry out
  • 执行
• patrol
  • 巡查，巡逻
• man
  • to provide with sufficient people for operation, defence, etc 在……岗位上工作，配备（人员）
    • Soldiers manned barricades around the city. 士兵把守这城市周围的路障。

Four of Sunday’s Serie A football matches, all at northern grounds, were called off. The government in Rome slapped a ban on school excursions. Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, the region that encompasses Venice, announced that he was bringing the city’s renowned carnival to an end at midnight of February 23rd, thereby cancelling the last two days of a festival that draws around 3m visitors every year. Mr Zaia also said he was shutting the city’s museums and suspending all other events involving crowds. He acknowledged the measures he had approved were drastic. But he added: “We want to prevent and not cure.”

• slap sth on sb/sth
  • 强制实行
• excursion
  • （尤指集体）远足，短途旅行
• encompass
  • to include entirely or comprehensively 包含，包括
• renowned
  • famous and respected 闻名的，受尊敬的
• thereby
  • used to introduce the result of the action or situation mentioned 因此，从而
• suspend
  • 推迟，暂缓
• drastic
  • extreme or forceful; severe 极端的，严厉的，猛烈的

In neighbouring Lombardy, the region around Milan, nurseries, schools and universities will not reopen for at least a week. La Scala opera house and the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan’s most celebrated art museum, are also shutting. Giorgio Armani and Laura Biagiotti, two fashion designers, both displayed their autumn and winter collections in the city via live streaming, behind closed doors. The governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, said that if the situation degenerated, he would impose more draconian measures, similar to those in Wuhan. Consumers in Italy’s business capital, fearing a lockdown, poured into supermarkets to stock up on food and other essentials. “We’re working flat out, like beasts of burden,” one employee told Ansa, a news agency. Other retailers said they had suffered a drastic fall in sales.

• nursery
  • 幼儿园
• celebrated
  • famous for having good qualities 著名的
• degenerate
  • to become worse, for example by becoming lower in quality or weaker 恶化，衰退
• impose
  • to introduce a new law, rule, tax, etc; to order that a rule, punishment, etc. be used 推行，采用（规章制度），强制实行
• draconian
  • (of a law, punishment, etc.) extremely cruel and severe （法律、惩罚等）严酷的，残忍的
  • Dracula 吸血鬼德古拉
• stock up (on/with sth)
  • 贮备，备足（某物）
• work flat out
  • 全力以赴地工作
  • flat out
    • as fast or as hard as possible 全速，全力以赴
• like beasts of burden
  • 如牛负重
  • beast of burden
    • an animal used for heavy work such as carrying or pulling things 役畜；牲口；驮兽

Italian health authorities had thought that they had identified the source of the outbreak: an executive who returned from China on January 21st. But he has since tested negative for the virus; on February 22nd it emerged there was no evidence so far to suggest he had developed antibodies. That leaves open the question of who brought the disease to Italy and complicates efforts to contain the outbreak.

• health authorities
  • 卫生当局
  • authority
    • [C, usually pl.] the people or an organization who have the power to make decisions or who have a particular area of responsibility in a country or region 当局；官方；当权者
• executive
  • a person who has an important job as a manager of a company or an organization （公司或机构的）经理，主管领导，管理人员
• so far
  • until now; up to this point 到目前为止，至今
• complicate
  • to make sth more difficult to do, understand or deal with 使复杂化
• contain
  • to prevent sth harmful from spreading or getting worse 防止……蔓延（或恶化）
    • to contain an epidemic

The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said he had been surprised by what he called an “explosion of cases”. Mr Conte appealed for cross-party unity in facing up to the emergency. In an apparent reference to the head of the hard-right Northern League, Matteo Salvini, he said that he had informed the leader of the opposition of the measures his government was taking.

• appeal
  • 呼吁；吁请；恳求
• unity
  • the state of being in agreement and working together; the state of being joined together to form one unit 团结一致，联合，统一
• face up to
  • to accept and deal with sth that is difficult or unpleasant 敢于面对，勇于正视（困难或不快之事）
• hard-right
  • 极右派
• the opposition
  • the people you are competing against in business, a competition, a game, etc. （事业、竞赛、游戏等的）对手，敌手，竞争者
  • the Opposition
    • the main political party that is opposed to the government; the political parties that are in a parliament but are not part of the government 反对党，在野党

Mr Salvini, whose party was ousted from power last year after he failed to force a general election, seemed to be in no mood to co-operate. “More than a hundred infected in Italy,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “Yet, for certain geniuses in the government, up until a few days ago, the problem was Salvini and the League: haters and racists who were sounding the alarm for no reason. Shame [on you]!” The health scare looks more likely to intensify Italy’s bitter political division than to ease them.

• oust
  • to force sb out of a job or position of power, especially in order to take their place 剥夺，罢免，革职
• sound
  • to give a signal such as a warning by making a sound 鸣警报，拉响警报，发出警报
• intensify
  • to increase in degree or strength; to make sth increase in degree or strength （使）加强，增强，加剧
• bitter
  • (of arguments, disagreements, etc.) very serious and unpleasant, with a lot of anger and hatred involved （争论、分歧等）激烈而不愉快的，充满愤怒与仇恨的