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ECONOMY

Italy’s low birth rate ‘plunging further due to coronavirus crisis’

The coronavirus crisis has hit Italy's already historically-low birth rate, new projections from the national statistics agency reveal.

Published: 25 November 2020 13:49 CET
Italy's low birth rate 'plunging further due to coronavirus crisis'
Fewer babies are expected to be born next year as Italy's economy suffers due to Covid-19. AFP
Italy had last year already recorded its lowest number of births for 150 years, at 420,000.
 
This could fall to 408,000 in 2020 and 393,000 in 2021, according to Istat.
 
The projections were presented to lawmakers on Tuesday by Istat head Gian Carlo Blangiardo.
 
“The climate of fear and uncertainty and the growing difficulties linked to employment and income generated by recent events will have a negative impact on Italian couples' fertility decisions,” he said.
 
“The demographic recession that has hit Italy since 2015 is significant and translates into a real collapse that has no equivalent in Italian history,
except if we go back to 1917-18, with World War I and the dramatic effects of the Spanish flu,” Blangiardo continued
 
 
Women and young people have been particularly badly affected by the crisis caused by coronavirus, which first hit Italy earlier this year, sparking an economically crippling national lockdown.
 
Employment among women fell by 1.9 percent between February and September this year, compared to 1.1 percent for men, as people were more likely to lose their jobs during lockdown and see a slower recovery, according to Istat.
 
It warned that the crisis was “amplifying existing inequalities in the labour market”.
 
The pandemic destroyed 80 percent of jobs gained by women since the financial crisis of 2008.
 
Between 2008 and 2019, Italy recorded an extra 602,000 jobs held by women. But it only took three months between April and June this year to lose 470,000
of them.
 
 
Istat found women are more likely to work in low-paid jobs in the service sector – which has been hit particularly hard by the crisis.
 
The hospitality industry in particular is still suffering, as a result of a nationwide night curfew and early closing for bars and restaurants introduced to stem a new wave of infections, while even tighter restrictions are in place in the regions most at risk.
 
In Italy, only half of women work, compared to 73 percent in Germany, 62 percent in France and 58 percent in Spain. Only Greece has a worst female employment level in Europe, at just 47 percent.
 
Italy has introduced various measures in recent years aimed at countering the chronically low birth rate, believed to be caused by the country's long-standing economic problems.
 
In the 2020 budget, ministers announced more funding for childcare and increased mandatory paternity leave to ten days.

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HEALTH

Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The World Health Organization's European office warned on Tuesday the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. And the real figure may be much higher.

Published: 27 June 2023 13:27 CEST
Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a “global health emergency.”

“Whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

“Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths continue to occur across the region every week, and this is an underestimate due to a drop in countries regularly reporting Covid-19 deaths to WHO,” Kluge added, and urged authorities to ensure vaccination coverage of at least 70 percent for vulnerable groups.

Kluge also said estimates showed that one in 30, or some 36 million people, in the region had experienced so called “long Covid” in the last three years, which “remains a complex condition we still know very little about.”

“Unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic,” Kluge said, encouraging more research in the area which he called an under-recognised condition.

Most countries in Europe have dropped all Covid safety restrictions but some face mask rules remain in place in certain countries in places like hospitals.

Although Spain announced this week that face masks will no longer be required in certain healthcare settings, including hospitals and pharmacies, with a couple of exceptions.

Sweden will from July 1st remove some of its remaining Covid recommendations for the public, including advice to stay home and avoid close contact with others if you’re ill or have Covid symptoms.

The health body also urged vigilance in the face of a resurgence of mpox, having recorded 22 new cases across the region in May, and the health impact of heat waves.

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