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HEALTH

Italy’s coronavirus death toll overtakes China’s after another 427 fatalities

Italian authorities reported on Thursday that the total number of deaths passed 3,400 in the last 24 hours, meaning the country has now seen more fatalities than China.

Published: 19 March 2020 18:16 CET
Italy's coronavirus death toll overtakes China's after another 427 fatalities
Italy's caribinieri police patrolling central Rome to enfore quarantine measures on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Italy has recorded a total of 3,405 deaths, compared to China's 3,245.

The number of fatalities announced on Thursday was lower than the record high of 475 fatalities on Wednesday — the highest official one-day figure in the world.

The number of confirmed cases in Italy also jumped to 41,035 on Thursday, up from 35,713 in 24 hours.

This figure ncludes the deceased as well as 4,440 patients who are now said to have recovered from the illness caused by the virus.

China reported no new infections for the first time on Thursday.

Italian hospitals now have almost 2,500 patients in intensive care.

Infections have started to rise in the south of the country, though the north remains far worse affected. The region of Lombardy is by far the worst-hit part of the country – and Europe.

Lombardy alone has seen almost two-thirds of all the deaths related to the outbreak – 2,168 on Thursday – with almost 20,000 cases confirmed in the region.

Emilia-Romagna now has more than 5,000 confirmed cases, followed by Veneto with nearly 3,500.

The only region which has not reported any fatalities is the rural southern region of Basilicata.

Regional authorities in Lombardy have warned its hospitals are running out of intensive care beds.

Data from health authorities on Thursday showed the region's intensive care was at 94 percent of capacity.

The percentage of intensive care beds used in each Italian region. Graph: Italian Ministry of Health

Italy's ANSA news agency said the deaths of two more doctors in the nearby town of Como west of Bergamo on Thursday brought the total number of medics killed by the new disease to 13.

It will take days or weeks before Italy sees the numbers of infected and deceased stop rising after it implemented quarantine measures, experts said on Wednesday.

A poll published in La Repubblica newspaper on Thursday found 96 percent of all Italians viewed the closure of most business and all schools and public institutions “positively” or “very positively” and just four percent said they were opposed.

While the measures are not as extreme as those taken in China's quarantine of Wuhan's Hubei province, they still seemed unimaginable for a Western democracy until this month.

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Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday that the government would be extending the quarantine period beyond the initial deadline of April 3rd.

Conte also warned that the government may also tighten quarantine rules yet further.

“Use your common sense and act with utmost caution,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Italians on Thursday. “We are not underestimating anything and always acting based on the worst-case scenario.”

Government ministers and regional governors have called for a ban on outdoor exercise and said parks and walkways across the country should be closed after 43,000 people across Italy were fined by police within one week for being outside “without a good reason”.

Member comments

  1. Theres been a Chinese population of 50000 in and around prato for years working in the clothing industry.. so how many went home for Chinese new year? And brought this virus to Italy? Why has this not been talked about???

  2. While I am happy to see Italy is receiving aid from China, it saddens me to see the Chinese propaganda machine (with the help of the media in America and Europe) being so successful in deflecting its responsibility for the origin of the virus, censoring news about it to the point of arresting citizen journalists who reported on it, banning search terms to keep people in China from finding info on the internet about it, keeping out WHO (with whom they are in bed with) and CDC doctors and lying about the virus spreading, stopping shipments of medical supplies to the States, and threatening to block any shipment of critical pharmaceuticals and antibiotics to America if we don’t stop saying it started in Wuhan. And they expect us to believe that they have stopped the virus in Wuhan? Seeing those boxes from China with “Siamo con voi” written on them makes me sick. It’s like an arsonist sending wood to rebuild your house after he’s burned it down. Forza Italia! Forza America!

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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.”

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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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