Para Swimming World Series Cancelled As Italy Acts To Contain Coronavirus

The Lignano round of the Para Swimming World Series  in Italy, scheduled for Thursday to Saturday this week has been cancelled as the country acts to contain an outbreak of Coronavirus that has already claimed six lives.

The Lignano event would have involved around 900 athletes, coaches and officials from 42 countries.

As the number of confirmed cases in Italy topped 100, the Para Swim Series Local Organising Committee (LOC) and Italian Para Swimming Federation (FINP) announced that it would cancel its event in one with guidance from the President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

Christian Holtz, Managing Director of World Para Sports, said: “We regret that this key event in the build-up to Tokyo 2020 has been cancelled but the health and well-being of our athletes is our top priority at all times.

“Northern Italy has seen an increase in coronavirus cases in recent days and, in an effort to stop this number rising further, several sport events, including Serie A football fixtures, have been cancelled or postponed.  Upon guidance from the local region, both the LOC and Italian Para Swimming Federation have decided to cancel the event.

He added: “As this event was also going to provide athlete classification opportunities World Para Swimming will look into what solution can be provided in the long-term by athletes impacted by this cancellation.”

The Around The next World Para Swimming World Series event will be hosted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 25-28 March 2020.

• The cancellation is the latest in a wave of sports events to have been affected by the spread of coronavirus.

WHO Talks Of Narrowing Window When It Comes To Coronavirus Becoming A Pandemic

World Health Organisation (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has given warning that the window of opportunity to contain the virus was “narrowing”.

The rapid spread of the virus in Italy has added to fears that the coronavirus outbreak could reach pandemic scale.

Most infections are in China, while South Korea, Italy and Iran have suffered significant numbers of cases of the virus, which causes the respiratory disease Covid-19.

A pandemic is when an infectious disease spreads easily from person to person in many parts of the world.

The numbers:

China: about 77,000 people infected; nearly 2,600 have died.

Elsewhere: More than 1,200 cases in about 30 other countries, just over 20 deaths, a sixth mortality in Italy confirmed this hour.

Mortality rates in some parts of China have exceeded 4%, while in general, the proportion of infected patients dying from Covid-19 appears to be between 1% and 2%. WHO has emphasised that such figures are guesstimates more than actual figures based on all known facts, at this stage.

Today, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Bahrain reported their first cases, all involving people from Iran.

The crisis is being felt in many realms, with airline stocks hardest hit as worldwide stock markets fell sharply over concerns about the economic impact of the virus; political events, such as China’s annual meeting of parliament next month, cancelled; and fashion shows such as that in Milan postponed.

Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia in the UK, told the BBC that the spike in cases outside China was “extremely concerning”.

“The tipping point after which [we lose] our ability to prevent a global pandemic seems a lot closer after the past 24 hours.”