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Italy records lowest one-day virus death toll in a week as doubts are cast over accuracy of data

Italy on Wednesday reported 4.782 more coronavirus cases and 727 more deaths in the past 24 hours - the lowest number since March 26th although some officials have raised doubts about the accuracy of death toll data.

Published: 1 April 2020 18:22 CEST
Updated: 1 April 2020 19:32 CEST
Italy records lowest one-day virus death toll in a week as doubts are cast over accuracy of data
An Italian flag flying at half-mast in Rome on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Another 4.782 cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed on Wednesday, according to the latest daily figures from Italy's Civil Protection department.

This represented a slightly faster rise in the number of new infections for the first time in six days – the rise has been gradually slowing day by day.

In total Italy has now confirmed 110,574 cases of coronavirus since the outbreak began, including the deceased and recovered patients.

Another 1,118 people had recovered on Wednesday figures showed, making a total of 16,847.

The death toll was slightly lower on Wednesday than on Tuesday, but some doubts were raised about the accuracy of data on fatalities.

The death toll figure rose by 727, compared to Tuesday's 837.

This brings the total number of fatalities to  13,155.

 

Significantly there was only a rise of 12 in the number of patients in intensive care – 4,035 compared to 4,023 on Tuesday. In the early stages of the epidemic in Italy the number would rise by hundreds each day.

Italian officials acknowledge that their coronavirus data are incomplete because deaths from COVID-19 related causes outside hospitals are not counted.

The number of people who died after catching the virus without ever being tested is unknown.

So is the number of people who died of other causes because they could not get treatment at an overstretched hospital.

READ ALSO:  How Italy has changed the way it reports the daily coronavirus figures

 

Some newspapers are asking why jumps in March deaths reported individually by some cities do not appear to be reflected in the national tally.

“The death count does not add up,” the Il Fatto Quotidiano said on Wednesday.

Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori said Wednesday he does not trust the official figures and thinks the real toll may be twice as high.

The mayor tweeted a newspaper analysis suggesting that the COVID-19 toll in the Bergamo province was “between 4,500 and 5,000, and not the 2,060” officially reported.

He also cited a local statistics agency analysis showing that 26 percent of Bergamo province's 1.1 million people had the virus.

“I fear that the real figure is higher,” the mayor tweeted.

High Health Institute president Silvio Brusaferro also said on Tuesday that the death toll may be higher than the official figures, which don't include people who died at home, in nursing homes and those who were infected by the virus but not tested.

“It is plausible that deaths are underestimated,” he said.

“We report deaths that are signalled with a positive swab. Many other deaths are not tested with a swab.”

READ ALSO: Fears in Italy shift to growing number who can't afford to eat after shutdown

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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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