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IN NUMBERS: What is the coronavirus situation in Italy now?

Italy has now lifted most lockdown restrictions but health authorities warn the coronavirus risk hasn't disappeared. So what's the current situation?

Published: 18 June 2020 09:22 CEST
IN NUMBERS: What is the coronavirus situation in Italy now?
A health worker checks a patient being treated for coronavirus at the Tor Vergata hospital in Rome. Photo: AFP

When Italy first began listing its strict nationwide lockdown on May 4th, all eyes were nervously focused on the latest coronavirus data as we waited to see if lifting restrictions would provoke a spike in cases.

Six weeks on, no new spike in cases has been recorded. However, authorities remind us the risk is still there, as the country continues to record hundreds of new infections daily and dozens of new deaths.

READ ALSO: Easing Italy's lockdown 'is a risk we're taking': health minister

Here's what the latest offical data from Italy's Department for Civil Protection tells us about the progress of the virus.

43

The number of Covid-19 deaths recorded in the 24 hours to June 17th.

329

New cases confirmed in the 24 hours to June 17th.

73 percent

The percentage of these new cases which are in the Lombardy region alone. Lombardy, where the outbreak began, remains by far the worst-hit region in Italy, recoding 242 of the total 329 new cases on June 17th, according to the latest regional data released by the Department for Civil Protection

Six

The number of regions in Italy which reported zero new cases on June 17th. They were: Puglia, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta, Calabria and Basilicata, and the autonomous province of Bolzano

23,925

The number of people currently known to be infected with Covid-19 in Italy

109

The number of new cases detected in two new outbreaks in Rome this week, at a hospital and a squatted apartment building in the capital. Of these there have been five fatalities.

237,828

The total number of cases in Italy, including the currently positive, the deceased and the recovered, since the outbreak began.

A graph showing the number of recorded cases in Italy since February. Source: Department of Civil Protection

34,448

The total number of Covid-19 deaths recorded in Italy since the start of the outbreak. The number is widely believed to be underestimated.

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

16,278

The number of “excess deaths” in Italy at the height of the epidemic. The number of deaths in Italy has been 40 percent higher than average, with about 42,900 more people dying than usual.

This figure is calculated by comparing the death toll during Febuary-April 2020 to that during the same period in previous years, using data from Italy's National Institute of Statistics (Istat)

26,644 of those deaths have been attributed to Covid-19. 

16,278 are unaccounted for. 

A large majority of the excess deaths have been recorded in northern regions. Piedmont for example recorded 50 percent more deaths than normal, while some central and southern regions actually saw fewer deaths than usual.
 
82.5

The age of the average deceased Covid-19 patient in Italy. A new study by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the italian Higher Health Institute, says the age has risen from steadily from March to June, and if looking at  data after May 4th it rises from 79.8 to 82.5.

The ISS wrote that this “could be due to a series of factors related to health care, from a better ability to treat the infection to a better organization in the fight against the epidemic.”

READ ALSO: When will a Covid-19 vaccine be available in Italy?

28,605

The number of healthcare workers in Italy who have been infected during the pandemic, according to a study by evidence-based medicine foundation Gimbe. The foundation says some 4,245 were infected within the past month.

163

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care as of June 17th. This is a key number to watch as it gives an insight into the likely progression of the epidemic over the next weeks. 

 

A total of 3,113 people are being treated in hospital, while 20,649 people, equal to 86 percent of the currently positive, are in isolation without symptoms or with mild symptoms.

179,455

Hospitalised Covid-19 patients who have returned home and are classed as “recovered”.

Read all of The Local's coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Italy here.

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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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