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Coronavirus: Italy launches investigation into suspicious care-home deaths

Italian justice officials have launched an investigation into the suspicious deaths of nearly 200 people at one of Europe's biggest care homes, in Milan, since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Published: 16 April 2020 17:23 CEST
Coronavirus: Italy launches investigation into suspicious care-home deaths
File photo: AFP

Investigators seized documents on Wednesday from the headquarters of the Lombardy regional government, media reports said.

They were investigating the deaths of “around 180 people” at Milan's Pio Albergo Trivulzio care home since Italy's coronavirus outbreak erupted in February, the AGI news agency said.

The home's medical records were reportedly seized on Monday to determine whether staff negligence may have caused the virus to spread and kill the residents.

READ ALSO: Five reasons why the coronavirus hit Italy so hard

The Pio Albergo Trivulzio care home is one of Europe's largest, providing lodgings for several thousand people.

Italy's La Repubblica newspaper said the home was suspected of concealing numerous COVID-19 fatalities.

Italy has officially recorded 21,645 deaths from the virus – the world's second-highest total after the United States.

But most care-home deaths are not included in the official statistics and some doctors suspect Italy's real toll might be twice as high.

READ ALSO: What's the problem with Italy's official coronavirus numbers?

 

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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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