Italy blasts virus panic as it eyes new testing criteria

ROME (AP) — With tourism tanking and panic rising, Italy tried to control the coronavirus in the realm of public perception Thursday as its outbreak grew to 650 cases and other countries took measures to limit travel to and from affected Italian regions. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Health Minister Roberto Speranza appeared before foreign journalists in Rome to blame overblown media coverage for travel advisories warning visitors to stay away, event cancellations and special border screenings for people coming from hard-hit northern Italy. “In Italy, we’ve gone from an epidemic risk to an ‘info-demic’ of confirmed disinformation, which at this moment is hitting our flow of...