The game that sparked the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy

A European soccer match between teams from Spain and Italy has been dubbed "Game Zero," due to it being the potential cause of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.

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Sports

March 26, 2020 - 9:50 AM

ROME (AP) — It was the biggest soccer game in Atalanta’s history and a third of Bergamo’s population made the short trip to Milan’s famed San Siro Stadium.

Nearly 2,500 fans of visiting Spanish club Valencia also traveled to that Champions League match.

More than a month later, experts are pointing to the Feb. 19 game as one of the biggest reasons why Bergamo has become one of the epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic — a “biological bomb” was the way one respiratory specialist put it — and why 35% of Valencia’s team became infected.

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