The recent COVID-19 outbreak has now spread its tentacles to the Italian Serie A as the Italian authorities have postponed three of its top tier football matches on Sunday over novel coronavirus fears in northern Italy. The matches between key title-contenders Inter Milan and Sampdoria, Atalanta against Sassuolo and Hellas Verona versus Cagliari have been pushed back after 79 people got infected and two died in the latest outbreak in the European country.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared late on Saturday that all sporting events in two northern regions would be suspended on Sunday.

Conte said, "Minister of Sport Vincenzo Spadafora intends to suspend all sporting events planned for Sunday in the Veneto and Lombardy regions." 

"I am sorry for fans of football and other sports who were planning to go to the matches scheduled tomorrow but citizens need to be responsible," the Italian prime minister added.

Meanwhile, title-chasing Inter tweeted, "The Club can confirm that Inter vs. Sampdoria, which was due to take place at 20:45 CET on Sunday 23 February, has been postponed to a later date."

Inter are currently in third place in the Serie A table and are six points behind Serie A champions and league leaders Juventus, who have a home Europa League match scheduled for Thursday. The disruptive Saturday also saw more than 40 amateur and youth matches in the regions called off because of virus fears as the Serie B game between Ascoli and Cremonese was also postponed.

The cases are mainly concentrated in Lombardy, which has 54 cases and 17 cases in the Veneto region. Two cases were reported in Emilia-Romagna, two in Lazio (two Chinese tourists reported at the end of January) and one in Piedmont. In addition, one patient recovered and was discharged from the hospital.