Streets were deserted and residents warned to keep out of an emergency room on Saturday in an Italian town placed under lockdown as a second death from coronavirus sparked fears throughout the region.  

"No entry" read the sign on the emergency room in the small town of Codogno with a population of 15,000 where three people have already tested positive for the virus, including one 38-year old man now on life support. 

On Saturday, Italian news agency ANSA reported a second death from the virus in the Lombardy region, where Codogno is located. 

It came one day after the death of a 78-year-old retired bricklayer from the Padua area in the nearby Veneto region, who was the first local person in Europe to die from the coronavirus. 

ANSA reported that the new victim was a woman. No further information was immediately available. 

Italy's health minister said that the man who died on Friday, Adriano Trevisan, had been admitted to hospital 10 days earlier for an unrelated health issue.

He was one of two people in the Veneto region with the virus, where another confirmed case overnight in a 53-year old man brought that number to three, president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia told Rai24 news. 

In Lombardy, 16 other people were discovered to have caught the virus and the region took immediate measures to isolate affected areas.

It was not immediately clear whether the victim on Saturday was part of that group, or a new case. 

In Rome, three people are being treated in isolation for the virus. 

  - Closed for business -

At Codogno's centre, only a bakery and a pharmacy were open, while other shops posted signs saying they were closed due to a local ordinance. 

At the civic hospital, there was very little movement early  Saturday other than nurses and other workers finishing their night shifts. 

Those who have tested positive for the virus in Codogno include the 38-year-old man's wife, who is eight months pregnant, and another man. Three others in the town have tested positive to a first novel coronavirus test and are awaiting their definitive results.

Meanwhile, Iran on Saturday reported one more death among 10 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the Islamic republic to five and infections to 28.

"We have 10 new confirmed cases of COVID-19," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on state television.

"One of the new cases has unfortunately passed away," he added, noting that eight of them had been hospitalised in Qom and two in Tehran, without specifying where the death occurred.

The COVID-19 outbreak first emerged in Iran on Wednesday, when officials said it killed two elderly people in Qom, a Shiite holy city south of the capital.

They were the first confirmed deaths from the disease in the Middle East.

Since then, Iran has carried out tests on 785 suspected cases, Jahanpour said.

"Most of the cases are either Qom residents or have a history of coming and going from Qom to other cities," the health ministry spokesman said.

Qom is a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims, attracting scholars from Iran and beyond. An official said the first two victims, who were Qom residents, had not left Iran.

Following the announcement of the deaths, neighbouring Iraq on Thursday clamped down on travel to and from the Islamic republic, with its health ministry announcing people in Iran were barred from entering the country "until further notice".

Kuwait's national carrier Kuwait Airways also announced it would suspend all flights to Iran.