Within a few days, cases of coronavirus in Italy, the most-affected country in the EU, have risen to over 200, with seven deaths, local media reported.
"We need to take this situation very seriously, but we must not give in to panic and, even more importantly, to disinformation," on Monday (24 February) warned the European commissioner for health, Stella Kyriakides, urging media to give the "right information" to concerned citizens.
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Elena is EUobserver's editor-in-chief. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.