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HEALTH

Italy’s coronavirus death toll passes 30,000

The number of deaths from coronavirus in Italy now exceeds 30,000, officials announced on Friday.

Published: 8 May 2020 18:32 CEST
Italy's coronavirus death toll passes 30,000
Photo: AFP

The country's Civil Protection Agency said that 30,201 people had died of the virus, after 243 more fatalities between Thusday and Friday.

It said 99,023 people have recovered from COVID-19 here, up 2,747.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Italy, including the deceased, the recovered and those who are currently infected, rose by 1,327 to 217,185. Thursday's rise was 1,401.

MAPS: Which parts of Italy have the fewest coronavirus cases?

Officials said 1,168 coronavirus patients in Italy are in intensive care, 143 fewer than Thursday, as the downward trend continued.

It is still too early to see any effect on the numbers due to the loosening of lockdown measures on Monday, May 4th.

Italy is the second European country, after Britain, to see more than 30,000 Covid-19 deaths.

There has been widespread criticism of Italy's data on deaths, which are thought to be vastly under-reported – mainly because the official toll only includes deaths in hospitals.

A study by Italian statistics agency Istat released on Friday indicated that 88 percent of registered Covid-19 deaths in the country were primarily caused by the disease.

 

 

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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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