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BERLUSCONI

Former Italian PM Berlusconi released from Milan hospital

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi was released from hospital Saturday after being admitted earlier in the week for complications linked to a coronavirus infection last year.

Silvio Berlusconi
Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP

The 84-year-old, who has been in and out of hospital in recent weeks, managed to exit Milan’s San Raffaele hospital while evading a throng of photographers and TV cameras awaiting his release outside one of the central doors.

“He’s anxious to get back to full activity,” the coordinator of his Forza
Italia party, Antonio Tajani, said after Berlusconi’s release.

He was admitted on Tuesday, the fourth time this year the media tycoon was hospitalised.

Berlusconi has dominated public life in Italy for decades, but has been set back by a string of health issues in recent years, including open heart surgery in 2016.

He was admitted to a hospital in Monaco for heart problems in January, just months after spending 11 days in the hospital in September after contracting coronavirus.

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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.

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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