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Italy has Europe’s worst coronavirus death toll

Italy on Saturday became the European country with the highest pandemic toll, its new total of 64,036 deaths overtaking Britain, according to an AFP tally.

Published: 13 December 2020 15:27 CET
Italy has Europe's worst coronavirus death toll
A member of the medical staff holds the hand of a coronavirus patient in April 2020 at the ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy. Photo: AFP

The Italian health ministry said that 649 people had succumbed to the virus in the previous 24 hours and that 19,903 new cases had been diagnosed.

Worldwide, the United States has reported the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, with 295,539 as of Saturday at 1100 GMT, followed by Brazil, India and Mexico.

According to the AFP tally for Europe, Italy overtook Britain, which has reported 64,026 deaths and is followed by France with 57,567 and Spain with 47,624.

EXPLAINED: Why is Italy's Covid-19 death toll so high?

“I am worried about the two weeks of Christmas holidays. We are up against a dramatic pandemic which is ongoing – the battle still has not been won,” Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza warned.

Regional affairs minister Francesco Boccia said that unless people adopted a careful approach, “the risk of a third wave is almost certain.”

Under Italy's latest emergency decree, the government on Friday tightened the coronavirus rules over the Christmas and New Year period, as well as keeping many existing measures in place, as it seeks to avoid a new spike in infections over the holidays.

Italy was the first European country to suffer a wave of coronavirus infections earlier this year, and imposed a nationwide lockdown.

The UK's toll overtook that of Italy on May 6, with close to 30,000 fatalities, and for a while over the summer, it appeared that Italy had weathered the storm.

But despite the introduction of mass testing, cases began rising again in early autumn. Italy's national medical association said on Friday that a total of 251 doctors have now died from the coronavirus.

 

 

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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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