Sept. 5 (UPI) — Media mogul and Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized in Milan on Thursday “as a precaution” after he and his children tested positive for the coronavirus.
A representative said Berlusconi displayed “certain symptoms” before he was transported to San Raffaele Hospital but there was “no cause for concern.”
“Silvio Berlusconi’s hospitalization was necessary because he was considered a patient at risk for his age and for previous pathologies that are known to all of us,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the director of anesthesia and intensive care at the hospital. “He was asymptomatic, then tests and his age suggested hospitalization [was needed].”
Berlusconi, 83, the former owner of professional soccer team AC Milan, said before he was hospitalized that he would continue working from home. Daughter Barbara, 36, son Luigi, 31, and his partner Marta Fascina, were diagnosed positive for the virus as well.
Berlusconi, who led three Italian governments from 1994 to 2011, was photographed with Flavio Briatore, the former Formula One team owner. Briatore owns the Billionaire nightclub, where an outbreak occurred in August where more than 60 people who visited the establishment came down with the virus.