All 40,000 fans who attended the Champions League encounter between Atalanta and Valencia last month was infected by coronavirus, the mayor of Bergamo has suggested.
Giorgio Gori, mayor of Bergamo, gave an interview – as cited by Marca – to say that the game “was a biological bomb.”
A report in Cadena Ser last week claimed that that the meeting in Milan last month is now thought to be the primary source of the mass spread of the virus in the northern Lombardy region of the country.
“At that time we did not know what was happening,” Gori added. “The first patient in Italy was on 23 February. If the virus was already circulating, the 40,000 fans who went to the San Siro stadium were infected. No one knew that the virus was already circulating among us. Many watched the game in groups and there were many contacts that night. The virus passed from one to another.”
On Tuesday, the government of Italy confirmed that 743 deaths from the virus had occurred in a 24-hour period, with the nation now suffering from 6,820 deaths and 54,030 active infections.
A statement from Valencia on 16 March confirmed 35% of their squad had tested positive and also mentioned having to play on February 19. in an ‘area confirmed high risk by the Italian authorities days later.’
Valencia players Ezequiel Garay, Jose Gaya and Eliaquim Mangala are among those who tested positive for the virus and are now in a period of quarantine.
Bergamo, the city where Atalanta are from, is the worst impacted in the entirety of the nation with the northern Lombardy region being the worst impacted in Europe so far.
