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HEALTH

‘The curve has started its descent’: Italy records lowest virus death toll in over two weeks

Italian officials said on Sunday they may soon have to consider easing restrictions after seeing Italy's daily coronavirus death toll plunge to its lowest in over two weeks.

Published: 5 April 2020 18:26 CEST
Updated: 6 April 2020 09:03 CEST
'The curve has started its descent': Italy records lowest virus death toll in over two weeks
Grass grows between Rome's famous cobblestones in the deserted city centre. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

The 525 official Covid-19 fatalities reported by Italy's civil protection service on Sunday were the lowest since the 427 registered on March 19.

They also represented a decline of 23 percent from the 681 deaths reported on Saturday.

The total number of people hospitalised across Italy fell for the first time, from 29,010 to 28,949 in a day.

This comes accompanied by another positive figure: it's the second day-to-day decrease in the number of patients in intensive care, from 3,994 on Saturday to 3,977 on Sunday.

The government reported that the change in the number of confirmed cases in Italy – the number of confirmed cases minus deaths and recoveries – was 2,972, slightly more than on Saturday.

READ ALSO: How Italy has changed the way it reports the daily coronavirus figures

“The curve has started its descent and the number of deaths has started to drop,” Italy's ISS national health institute director Silvio Brusaferro told reporters.

“If these data are confirmed [in the coming days], we will have to start thinking about phase two,” he said in reference to an easing of a month-long national lockdown.

Italy's second phase of the battle against a virus that has now officially killed 15,887 may be trickier than the first.

READ ALSO: 

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte decided to address Italy's biggest crisis in generations by sacrificing the economy for the benefit of public health.

Italy became the first Western democracy to voluntarily shut down almost all businesses and ban public gatherings – including simple walks in the park – on March 12.

The gamble appears to be paying off. But the hit to the Italian economy will be enormous. The country's big business lobby Confindustria estimates that this year's production will shrink by 6 percent if the lockdown remains in place until the end of May.

Confindustria believes that any additional week after that will chop another 0.75 percent off Italy's total output — the European Union's third-largest last year.

Conte's government is expected to announce new emergency support measures on Monday for small businesses and families that expand on a €25 billion programme unveiled last month.

READ ALSO: Solidarity food baskets hang from Naples balconies to help those in need


Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP

The coming easing in Italy has not been tried by any other Western nation since the virus spread from China to Europe in February.

Italian health officials remain extremely cautious because they know that the death toll is falling almost certainly because most people are self-isolating.

Civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli called Sunday's drop in reported deaths “good news”.

“But we should not let our guard down,” he warned.

Italian media on Sunday said Conte's government was preparing a five-point plan that would open up businesses in stages while keeping many social distancing measures in place for some time.

The Corriere della Sera daily said Italians would be asked to go to work with face masks and required to stay two metres apart in public at all times.

Anyone who shows the slightest Covid-19 symptoms must be immediately reported to the health authorities and isolated for two weeks.

Conte's government also intends to secure tens of thousands of certified blood test kits to see how many people have developed antibodies for the disease. Those with the antibodies might have immunity and be allowed to work.

READ ALSO: The Italian mayor fighting for mass virus blood testing

But Italy does not have any certified kits at the moment and when these will be available remains unknown. It is also unclear whether people with antibodies can still spread the disease.

Italy is also reportedly planning to build more coronavirus-specific hospitals across the country.

The government's final proposal involves using phone apps to “strengthen contact tracing” — a controversial measure opposed by privacy advocates that has been tried in countries such as South Korea and Israel.

Italy’s civil protection agency says that 21,815 people have so far recovered from the coronavirus.

This article has been edited to clarify the total number of new cases.

Member comments

  1. Why is the local now using this ridiculous new recording system? It was using the worldometers data up until now which is the accurate number. The true number of new cases is 4316. How are people to truly understand the situation if you report only 2972 of 4316 new cases. The situation is certainly improving but we haven’t drop from 6153 new cases in a day to 2972. People still need to take this just as serious and continuing to use this metric means that we will reach a point where new cases are being ignored because the rate of recovery is high promoting the disregard of the quarantine and social distancing too soon. I really disagree with the decision to this “adjusted” number.

  2. I agree with James completely. Even the figures on Worldometer are considered to be markedly under estimating the true number of cases and deaths. We need to continue vigilance for some time yet.

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BREXIT

‘In the dark’: Why Brits in Italy are still unable to prove rights to free healthcare

Despite UK and Italian authorities confirming that British residents covered by post-Brexit rules are entitled to healthcare in Italy, many still face "significant problems" in accessing it, the British government has said.

Published: 22 May 2024 13:38 CEST
Updated: 23 May 2024 11:57 CEST
'In the dark': Why Brits in Italy are still unable to prove rights to free healthcare

Cancer patients are among those in need of treatment but unable to access the Italian national health service amid confusion over post-Brexit rules, campaigners say, after clarifications from the UK and Italian governments have so far failed to resolve bureaucratic deadlocks at local authority level.

Since the end of the Brexit transition period in 2021, many British nationals resident in Italy covered by the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) have reported difficulties in proving their right to free healthcare under the Italian public system.

The problem was exacerbated this year after the Italian government in January hiked the minimum annual fee for ‘voluntary’ healthcare registration from €387 to €2,000, which many said they were unable to pay.

The British government in February stepped in to clarify that UK nationals covered by the WA should not be subject to charges for healthcare, and on its Living in Italy website it advised those affected to show their local health authority office (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, or ASL) an official note published by the Italian health ministry on February 15th which sets out their rights (find it here, in Italian.)

WA beneficiaries “can compulsorily enrol (iscrizione obbligatoria) with the Italian National Health System,” states the final section, pointing out that the deal, “in Article 23, provides for equal treatment with domestic nationals.”

But for some local health officials, even this written confirmation does not appear to be enough to clear up the confusion.

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

The UK government on Friday, May 17th, updated its guidance to say it had become aware that “some beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement are facing significant problems accessing health services and renewing their healthcare cards,” despite its advice to show local health authorities the official note.

British nationals continue to report that local health authorities around Italy remain unwilling to issue them with a health card, while campaigners say the situation is further complicated for some by the fact that Italian authorities have also refused to issue proof of their permanent residency status, which entitles them to free healthcare.

This was the case for Graham Beresford, a British citizen living in Abruzzo who has been diagnosed with a rare cancer and remains unable to access the free healthcare he is entitled to, as he says local authorities don’t understand the post-Brexit rules.

Graham told The Local in April that the government’s clarifications on the issue had made little difference – his ASL continues to demand he pay the 2,000-euro charge.

READ ALSO: Can I get a refund after wrongly paying Italy’s €2,000 healthcare fee?

“Every time I go to my ASL 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.”

Graham’s story was reported in The Guardian on May 12th ahead of UK foreign secretary David Cameron’s first major meeting with European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič to discuss post-Brexit relations.

Campaigners also wrote to Cameron in April to appeal for help with the “desperate” situation faced by those unable to access care in Italy.

In its update to the Living in Italy website on Friday, the British government stated: “Since [the health ministry’s note] was published, and particularly in recent days and weeks, it has become clear to us that not all Italian authorities are consistently following this guidance.”

“We are urgently speaking to all relevant parts of the Italian government to clarify the situation so that we can give clear advice to those affected as soon as possible. 

“We also know that this problem is linked to the many difficulties some are experiencing with obtaining an attestazione di soggiorno permanente and/or the Carta di Soggiorno permanente. We are working to help with these issues too.

“We will update this page as soon as we have further news.”

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

Clarissa Killwick from Beyond Brexit, a group for UK citizens in Italy, said the situation “should never have been allowed to happen” and that there had been “a series of communication failures and inconsistencies.”

“We’re not far short of five months after the introduction of the €2,000 new minimum for voluntary contributions and there is still no clarity,” she added.

“There are fraught exchanges in public offices because people on both sides of the counter are in the dark or with conflicting information.

“People need information they can rely on, unequivocally. What do you say to someone who is waiting for an operation but has no idea what is going on?”

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