COVID Prostitute Causes Health Alert In Sicily

Story By: Marija StojkoskaSub-EditorMichael Leidig, Agency: Central European News

The mayor of an Italian city has urged men not to worry about upsetting their wives and to rush to get a COVID-19 test after a prostitute tested positive for the disease after moving to another city.

The alarm was raised in Modica, a city in the Province of Ragusa, which is in Sicily in southern Italy, where news that the woman was infected has caused panic given that there are almost no cases locally of the disease.

The woman, originally from Peru, had moved to the region and rented a house in order to offer her services but had moved on later, travelling by bus to Catania, and then later taking a train to Umbria where she started to feel unwell, and was diagnosed with COVID-19.

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According to local newspaper Il Giornale, the woman, who was not named but was reportedly aged 54, had been in the Modica region for more than two weeks and was working for 10 days as a prostitute before moving on.

Local newspaper La Republicca reports the Mayor of Modica, Ignazio Abate, has now urged locals to have a test.

He was reported as saying: “Two or three customers a day for 10 days means 20-25 twenty people who may have had contact with the virus and have infected others at home or at the local bar. My appeal is aimed at those who have had relationships with this woman: Go for tests. Even if it means your wives kicking you out.”

A local medical team attempting to reconstruct the woman’s movements and activities found that she had rented a historic house in the centre of the city, and had been receiving clients there for her work as a prostitute.

Modica, which has about 54,000 citizens, has until now had almost no cases of coronavirus.

Sky TG24 reported two alleged customers of the woman have so far been identified by the police. One of them tested negative for COVID-19 and the other one is in quarantine.

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