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HEALTH

Italy records highest annual death toll since second world war

Italy is set to record more than 700,000 deaths in total this year, the highest annual figure since 1944.

Published: 16 December 2020 09:35 CET
Italy records highest annual death toll since second world war
Coffins of deceased Covid patients at a church in Bergamo, Lombardy, in March 2020. Photo: AFP
 “2020 is not over yet, but a reasonable analysis leads us to believe that we will go over the threshold of 700,000 deaths,” said Gian Carlo Blangiardo, president of national statistics agency Istat, on Tuesday.
 
“It can be deduced that the high death toll is linked to the impact of Covid-19,” Blangiardo told Italy's Rai television.
 
“This is a worrying level because the last time something like this happened was in 1944 when we were in the Second World War”.
 
By comparison, Italy registered a total of 647,000 deaths in 2019, he said.
 
Italy on Saturday became the European country with the highest pandemic death toll.
 
 
The health ministry said on Tuesday that a further 846 Covid deaths were recorded in Italy in the previous 24 hours – another near-record high number.
 
Italy's total Covid-19 death toll now stands at 65,857.
 
Authorities also said that 14,844 new positive cases had been recorded in that time.
 
The number of patients in hospital, and in intensive care, continues to fall steadily.
 
Meanwhile the trend of Italy's population declining and becoming steadily older year on year continued in 2019, according to another set of data released by Istat on Tuesday.

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BREXIT

‘We are desperate’: Why the UK must help Britons with Italian healthcare charges

A 74-year-old British woman has explained the "frustration and fear" Britons in Italy are facing when trying to access healthcare and appealed to the UK government for help.

Published: 11 April 2024 09:53 CEST
'We are desperate': Why the UK must help Britons with Italian healthcare charges

Pat Eggleton, a teacher and writer from the UK, appealed to the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron in the letter sent April 9th about the “desperate” situation faced by UK citizens entitled to free healthcare in Italy – but unable to access it.

British nationals residing in Italy before Brexit, and covered by the Withdrawal Agreement (WA), are in many cases being told by Italian health authorities that they must pay steep new fees at a minimum of €2,000 a year – even though they are exempt from paying at all.

READ ALSO: ‘Life or death situation’: Brits facing high Italian healthcare costs amid rule change uncertainty

In her open letter seen by The Local, Ms. Eggleton, who has lived in Italy since 2005, highlighted that the current minimum is a huge jump from the previous €387, and said that the sum was “difficult, or even impossible, for some to find when there had been no prior notification and there is no option to pay in instalments.”

“A great deal of undeserved worry, frustration and even fear has ensued,” she wrote.

“Some of our group have serious, ongoing health conditions. All we require is for one sentence from the Italian government confirming that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries do not have to pay for healthcare access to be circulated to all regional health authorities.

“We implore you to act before this becomes even more serious. As someone put it, “This is a matter not only of money, but of health.” 

Ms Eggleton’s letter came exactly one month after the British government confirmed that all WA agreement beneficiaries are exempt from paying the €2,000 fee, provided they were living in Italy before January 1st 2021.

But there were no details available at the time from the Italian government setting out how the rules would be implemented or communicated to local health authorities around Italy.

Since then, there has been no further information released by the Italian government on any official platform. 

One Withdrawal Agreement beneficiary, Graham Beresford, told The Local last week how he was having trouble accessing healthcare, even though he has a right to it.

Mr. Beresford suffers from blood cancer and needs access to the Italian healthcare system to obtain his medication. 

“Every time I go to my ASL (local health unit) office, I always feel like I’m dismissed,” Graham said. “I told the ASL worker I need medication for my cancer and she replied lots of people come in here with sob stories.

“There genuinely seems to be no compassion whatsoever.”

The Local has written to the Italian health ministry for comment.

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