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COVID-19 STATS

Italy records highest-ever daily number of Covid cases amid Omicron wave

Italy saw a record 44,595 coronavirus infections in 24 hours on Thursday, as the government prepares to announce tighter health measures to come into force over the festive period.

Published: 23 December 2021 18:08 CET
People queue for coronavirus tests outside a pharmacy in Rome.
Italy is set to announce further health measures intended to contain a new wave of contagion fuelled by the Omicron virus variant. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Italian health ministry data released on Thursday showed the highest daily number of infections seen in the country since the start of the pandemic,

 A record 44.595 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours –  a sharp increase from the 36,293 reported on Wednesday.

The previous record daily number of infections was 40,902, recorded on November 13th, 2020.

READ ALSO: What will change under Italy’s new Covid decree?

The figure can be partly explained by a large increase in the number of tests carried out in the last 24 hours: more than 901,000, compared to 779,000 on Wednesday.

The test positivity rate was up to 4.9 percent, from 4.6 percent the day before.

There were 168 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, while on November 13th last year the figure was 550, noted Italian news agency Ansa.

Hospitalisation figures are also lower by comparison today – though the numbers of Covid patients in both intensive care and other hospital wards continue to rise daily.

There are 1,023 Covid patients in Italy’s ICU units (compared to 3,230 last November) and 8,722 in other wards (compared to 30,914).

Some 430,029 people in Italy are currently positive, 27,300 more than yesterday, health ministry data showed,

The Lombardy region, which has been the worst-affected part of Italy since the start of the pandemic, saw its own record of 12,955 confirmed cases on Thursday.

However the region, like most others in Italy, remains a low-risk ‘white’ zone with minimal health measures in place.

The Omicron variant is known to be behind 28 percent of the infections recorded in Italy, or more than one in four, Italy’s Higher Health Institute (ISS) said earlier on Thursday.

The Italian government is meeting on Thursday evening to agree on tighter health measures intended to stem the latest Covid wave.

A new decree is expected to focus mainly on tightening the rules on wearing masks and using Italy’s ‘green pass’ Covid health certificate, and also on extending the country’s current vaccine mandate to more groups, with Draghi stressing on Wednesday that “vaccines remain the best weapon we have against the virus”.

For more information about the current Covid-19 situation in Italy please see the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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HEALTH

Italian hospitals under pressure as flu and Covid cases rise

Italy's doctors warned on Wednesday that hospitals risk becoming overwhelmed as the number of patients suffering from acute cases of seasonal flu and Covid has ballooned.

Published: 10 January 2024 16:24 CET
Italian hospitals under pressure as flu and Covid cases rise

Emergency rooms in Italy’s hospitals are facing a “crisis”, doctors warned, as ever-increasing numbers of people in Italy are becoming infected with Covid and the winter flu virus.

Since Sunday, two patients in the northern city of Vicenza, a 55-year-old and 47-year-old man, are reported to have died of the H1N1 virus, a seasonal flu that’s been circulating since 2009.

A further three patients also suffering from the virus in the same Vicenza hospital, San Bortolo, were reportedly in a critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon.

Matteo Bassetti, director of infectious diseases at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, blamed the outbreak on the authorities’ failure to conduct an effective seasonal vaccine campaign.

“The vaccination campaign was disastrous and these are the results,” he told journalists.

Italy’s Federation of Oncologists, Cardiologists and Hematologists, Foce, on Wednesday published an appeal to government to address the growing crisis.

“For several weeks we have been witnessing the phenomenon of worsening chaos in our emergency systems. The emergency rooms are in a nightmare situation and the hospital wards are ‘under siege’,” the federation’s board wrote in a statement.

“It is clear that what was said at the end of July is not true, that is, that the Covid pandemic “had ended in terms of numbers”. The virus never disappeared,” they added.

“The current very acute emergency room crisis is therefore also due to the lackluster and inadequate influenza vaccination campaign, which has had much lower coverage than in previous years.”

Covid booster vaccines have been available to at-risk categories since October in most Italian regions, and to the general public since early December, but a lack of publicity is being blamed for the fact that many doctors, as well as patients, were unaware that the vaccine was available.

Vicenza’s local health authority has urged residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible and encouraged the use of masks in the event of an infection.

Spain on Monday reinstated a requirement to wear masks in hospitals as the country faced a major flu outbreak and Covid cases surged.

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