Despite the sudden rise incoronavirus casesin Italy,JoeandTeresa Giudice‘s lawyer says the family is staying calm when it comes to the patriarch’s safety.
“The family is praying for all those affected with the coronavirus,” Giudice family lawyerJames J. Leonard Jr.tells PEOPLE. “There is no heightened concern regarding Joe being in Italy.”
After the country announced a dramatic spike in cases, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised the threat level to aLevel 1, Increased Community Transmission.According to the CDC’swebsite: “Community spread means that people in Italy have been infected with the virus, but how or where they became infected is not known.”
In the wake of the outbreak,The New York Timesreports, “Italy has locked down 50,000 people in 10 northern towns to contain the first major coronavirus outbreak in Europe, as fears grow of a spread across the continent.”
While most of the cases were documented around Milan, Joe has been living in Salerno, a port city southeast of Naples, sincehe was deportedin October following his release from prison.
Dave Kotinsky/Getty
Joe, 49, and Teresa, 47, have been living apart since March 2016, when Joe began his 41-month prison sentence for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud. Teresa had served a little over 11 months in prison for the same crimes and wasreleased on Dec. 23, 2015.
After Joe wasreleased in March 2019, he was transferred into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Clinton County Correctional Center in Pennsylvania as he fought to appeal a judge’s deportation order. (He has lived in the United States since he was a childbut never obtained American citizenship.) Two appeals have been denied, and one is still pending.
TheReal Housewives of New Jerseystar eventuallyrequested to go to Italyto await the final appeal.
This past fall,Teresa traveled to Italy with her four daughters— Gia, 19, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 11 — to visit Joe.
Teresa and Joe Giudice with their daughters.Joe Giudice/Instagram
More than one month later, the pairannouncedtheirseparationin December after 20 years of marriage.
“They discussed their future when Teresa and the girls went to Italy in early November and they agreed that each had to move on. They are doing so amicably and very slowly,” a source close to the family told PEOPLE exclusively at the time.
source: people.com
