Champions League clash identified as 'match zero' & may have triggered Italy Covid crisis

Certain experts have identified a specific football match as one of the reasons why Bergamo in Italy became the epicentre of the Coronavirus which has led to the country finding itself in a deep crisis. The match is now being termed as 'match zero'

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Potential spread of virus?

The Champions League match between Atlanta and Valencia at San Siro stadium is now thought of as one of the main reasons for the such a big spread of the virus across Europe, especially in Italy and Spain. Bergamo's mayor, Giorgio Gori recently said, "We were mid-February so we didn’t have the circumstances of what was happening. If it’s true what they’re saying that the virus was already circulating in Europe in January, then it’s very probable that 40,000 Bergamaschi in the stands of San Siro, all together, exchanged the virus between them. As is possible that so many Bergamaschi that night got together in houses, bars to watch the match and did the same. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have known. No one knew the virus was already here. It was inevitable."

Italy has recorded 80,589 cases of the virus with 8, 215 deaths. Italy has the third-highest number of cases but has recorded the highest number of deaths.

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Talking about the economic consequences of the virus he said Italy was entering a "war economy". "The economic consequences of the suspensions risks to be unsurmountable, because the continuity of companies is being interrupted for a substantially undetermined period."

As of Tuesday, nearly 7,000 people in the province of Bergamo had tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 1,000 people had died from the virus — making Bergamo the most deadly province in all of Italy for the pandemic. The Valencia region had more than 2,600 people infected.

Luca Lorini, the head of the intensive care unit at the Pope John XXIII hospital in Bergamo, currently has 88 patients under his care with the coronavirus; not including many more in other parts of the hospital.

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