In Italy, Spread of Coronavirus Linked to a Champions League Match

It was the biggest football 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 February 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.

The match, which local media have dubbed "Game Zero," was held two days before the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19 was confirmed in Italy.