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LATEST: Infections continue to slow as Italy records 604 more coronavirus deaths

Italy's coronavirus figures, while still worryingly high, continued to show a steady downward trend on Tuesday according to the latest offical data.

Published: 7 April 2020 18:29 CEST
LATEST: Infections continue to slow as Italy records 604 more coronavirus deaths
A doctor treats coronavirus patients in hospital in Turin, northern Italy. Photo: AFP

With a total of 3.039 new cases confirmed on Tuesday, the number of infections continued to slow in Italy.

ANALYSIS: How and when will Italy's lockdown end?

The daily infection rate reached a new low of just 2.3 percent, Italy's Department for Civil Protection stated.

The number of patients in intensive care also decreased by 106 to 3.792 on Tuesday, and 1.555 patients have recovered from the virus in 24 hours, with recoveries rising to a total of over 24,000.

There were 604 new fatalities reported.

In total, 17,127 lives have now been lost to the virus in Italy, and there have been 135.586 cases in total since the outbrk began, according to official figures.

The highest daily reported death toll was 969 on March 27.

Health officials warned that the outbreak appears to have peaked in some areas only because of the various closures and bans, which they insist must remain in place – perhaps until a vaccine is developed or some reliable tests can show who has immunity against the new disease.

“We are far from the end,” the scientific committee's head Domenico Arcuri told reporters on Tuesday ahead of government talks on the quarantine measures.

“The number of men and women who will die from the virus will continue to rise.”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte consulted the committee of top scientists on Tuesday about ways to safely end the lockdown, which has now been in place for almost a month.

 
94 doctors have now died from coronavirus in Italy, and 26 nurses. 12,681 health workers in total have contracted the virus, according to FNOMCEO, an Italian doctors' association.

Photo: AFP

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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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