An Italian woman on holiday in Palermo has become the first person to test positive for the coronavirus in southern Italy, Italian media report.

The woman, from Bergamo, is now in isolation in the Palermo's Cervello hospital, regional president Nello Musumeci said.

The people she was travelling with has also been placed under quarantine, local media report.

The group arrived in Sicily before the outbreak in the Lombardy region began last week, Musumeci told reporters.

In central Florence, a 60-year-old Italian businessman who had reportedly travelled to Singapore in the past weeks has been placed in isolaton at the city's Ponte a Niccheri hospital after testing positive to the virus.

The man is the first person in Tuscany to test positiv.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy had risen to over 220 on Monday night.

Those infected included 101 who were being treated in hospital, 27 others who were in intensive care and 94 who were in self isolation.

According to the World Health Organisation more than 80 percent of patients infected with the virus have mild disease and recover, while 14 percent have severe diseases such as pneumonia.

Around five percent of all cases are considered critical and only two percent result in death.