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UPDATE: Italy reports 475 new coronavirus deaths, the highest one-day toll of any country

Italy has now recorded almost 3,000 deaths related to the coronavirus outbreak, as the number of cases detected passes 35,000, authorities announced on Wednesday.

Published: 18 March 2020 18:20 CET
Updated: 18 March 2020 19:50 CET
UPDATE: Italy reports 475 new coronavirus deaths, the highest one-day toll of any country
A medical worker at a hospital in Lombardy. Photo: Piero Cruciatti/AFP

Italy reported 475 new deaths in 24 hours from the new coronavirus – the highest one-day official toll of any nation since the first case was detected in China late in 2019.

There have now been a total of 2,978 deaths in Italy while the number of infections reached 35,713, officials said on Wednesday.

The previous record high of 368 deaths was also recorded in Italy, on Sunday.

Health experts in Italy said it remains difficult to predict when the number of fatalities and cases in Italy will peak, though some estimate this will happen between March 25 and April 15.

With the whole country living under strict quarantine rules since March 10th, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has previously said it would take at least ten days for the effects of the lockdown to be seen.

The vast majority of both cases and fatalities have been recorded in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, which is by far the worst hit by the outbreak.

READ ALSO: Here's what we know so far about Italy's coronavirus victims

The regional governor of Lombardy said on Wednesday that hospitals in the area may soon be “unable to help” any more patients as the numbers keep rising.

He repeated a call for people to stay at home and respect the quarantine rules.

Italian government ministers on Wednesday warned that they may tighten quarantine rules yet further, saying they are considering a complete ban on all outdoor activities including exercise, after 43,000 people across Italy were fined by police within one week for being outside “without a good reason”.

With the death rate still climbing despite the Mediterranean country entering a second week under effective lockdown, officials urged Italians to have faith and to stay strong.

“They main thing is, do not give up,” Italian National Institute of Health chief Silvio Brusaferro said in a nationally televised press conference.

“It will take a few days before we see the benefits” of containment measures, said Brusaferro.

“We must maintain these measures to see their effect, and above all to protect the most vulnerable.”

Imposed nationally on March 12th, the shutdown of most Italian businesses and a ban on public gatherings are due to expire on March 25.

READ ALSO: 'Hospitals are overwhelmed': Italian doctors describe their struggle to treat Lombardy's coronavirus patients

But school closures and other measures, such as a ban on fan attendance at sporting events, are due to run on until April 3.

A top government minister hinted Wednesday that the school closure would be extended well into next month, if not longer.

The rates within Italy itself remained stable, with two-thirds of the deaths — 1,959 in all — reported in the northern Lombardy region around Milan, the Italian financial and fashion capital.

The neighbouring Emilia-Romagna region of Bologna has suffered a total of 458 fatalities, and Turin's Piedmont region has had 154 deaths.

Rome's Lazio region has a toll of  32 deaths and 724 infections.

 

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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