A fifth elderly patient has died after contracting the coronavirus in Italy, while the number of people testing positive for the virus is now over 200.

The latest victim was an 88-year-old man in the small town of Caselle Landi in the north-western region of Lombardy, the head of Italy’s civil protection service announced.According to the chief of the Protezione Civile that is leading Italy’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, a total of 219 cases had been confirmed.

The latest fatality follows the death of an 84-year-old man in Bergamo, also in Lombardy, which was announced earlier on Monday.
On top of the deaths of one other man and two women, that brings the number of people in Italy who have died since contracting the coronavirus to five.

At least two had other health problems, and all were reported to be over 75. Italy now has more confirmed cases than any other countries except China.

According to the regional president of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, by Monday morning the number of people testing positive in the region had reached 165.
A smaller number of cases have also been confirmed in Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige and Lazio.
Authorities suspect several cases can be traced back to a 38-year-old man whom authorities have called “patient one”. Investigators are reconstructing minute by minute his movements over the past few weeks — where he slept, ate, walked — in a bid to trace everyone he could have come into contact with.

Eleven towns — ten in Lombardy and one in Veneto — are under lockdown, with some 50,000 residents prohibited from leaving. Regional authorities have ordered gathering spots, such as bars, restaurants and discos to close.