Worries grow over northern hospitals as Italy's coronavirus toll surges

[webfact]

Worries grow over northern hospitals as Italy's coronavirus toll surges

By James Mackenzie

 

A man wearing a protective mask on an empty Rialto Bridge on Sunday with an unprecedented lockdown across of all Italy imposed to slow the outbreak of coronavirus, in Venice, Italy, March 15, 2020. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

 

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian authorities voiced growing concern on Sunday over how much longer strained health systems could cope with the coronavirus outbreak, as thousands of new cases were recorded over the past 24 hours and hundreds more people died.

 

While the virus has begun spreading rapidly across Europe, Italy remains the second most heavily affected country after China, where the illness first emerged, and the outbreak has shown no signs of slowing.

 

The government is working urgently on procuring more protective equipment, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, adding there was maximum attention on helping Lombardy, the northern region where the virus emerged three weeks ago.

 

"Our priority is to keep doctors, nurses and all our health personnel safe," Conte said in a statement.

 

A week ago, his government, which is preparing a package of measures to support businesses and workers hit by the crisis, imposed a virtual lockdown across the country.

 

With 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths by Sunday - a rise of 368 in the death toll in just 24 hours - Italy's experience has offered an alarming example for other European countries which have begun seeing sharp rises in cases over recent days.

 

Lombardy, the heavily populated area around the financial capital Milan, has been the worst-affected region with 1,218 deaths. Of those, 252 were recorded in the last 24 hours.

 

Italy has the most elderly population in Europe, with almost a quarter aged 65 and over, rendering it especially vulnerable to a disease that has predominantly killed older people.

 

The head of the civil protection authority, Angelo Borelli, said that Lombardy had been able to transfer 40 patients to other regions and said he was so far unaware of any cases of patients dying because of a lack of intensive care facilities.

 

But the health systems in Lombardy and in other regions such as Emilia Romagna and Veneto at the epicentre of the Italian outbreak have been pushed to their limits.

 

"The numbers have continued to grow. We're close to the moment where we will have no more intensive care beds," Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana told SkyTG24 television.

 

PUSHED TO THE LIMITS

Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri confirmed the government's planned economic support package would total some 25 billion euros ($27.94 billion) and said it would ensure companies and workers were helped through the crisis.

 

He said the package would provide extra funding for the health system as well as a mix of measures to help companies and households including freezing tax and loan payments and boosting unemployment benefits to ensure no jobs were lost.

 

"We had to give a strong and immediate response to both the public health crisis and the economic crisis," he told RAI state television. "No one will lose their job because of the coronavirus and everybody should be able to support themselves during this phase of the emergency."

 

Italy was the first government in Europe to impose country-wide restrictions to try to control the spread of the virus, closing schools, shops and sporting events and ordering people to stay in their homes for all but essential travel.

 

Most cases in Lombardy have been in small towns in areas like Bergamo and Brescia, but there have been fears of a major spread into Milan itself, which could overwhelm hospitals.

 

"The big challenge will be to see how far we can succeed in keeping Milan, the metropolitan area, away from a mass phenomenon with the disease," said Massimo Galli, head of the infectious diseases unit at the city's Sacco hospital.

 

Authorities have been working to set up hundreds of intensive care beds in a specially created facility in the Fiera Milano exhibition centre but are still waiting for sufficient respirators and qualified personnel.

 

Behind the concern for the north, there was also a looming worry over the much less well-equipped south, where tens of thousands of people have arrived from the affected regions.

 

Nello Musumeci, president of the Sicily region, said at least 31,000 people had arrived from northern and central areas in the past 10 to 12 days and registered with authorities but the real number was much higher.

 

"How many other thousands have entered without showing the same sense of responsibility?" he told RAI state television, adding that the army might have to be deployed to oversee points of arrival.

 

(Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, Elvira Pollina and Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Jan Harvey, Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-16

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[MasterBaker]

Every country had almost 2 month head start when pandemics started in China. Nobody done nothing to prevent the spread, now they are whining about situation. Shame on you, pseudo democrats in Europe! This is not a time to observe human rights, this is the war.

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

I understand all of it . Are the animals slaughtered at the Wuhan market not part of the ecosystem ?

Bet you'd like to be on a soapbox on some street corner, shouting at crowds.

Shame they're all at home.

 

Get help!

Edited March 16, 2020 by BritManToo

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, marko kok prong said:

Great post,you know i was wondering about this the other day,with Humanity rampaging across the planet digging,cutting,spraying eveything in it's path,maybe this is a warning from the planet,to change our ways,

I haven't done any of that.

So there's nothing I can change.

[BritManToo]

48 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

I am not the only one who thinks like this , there are quite a lot of people out there already who think like I do

The world is full of crazy people.

But what I never understand, everything the rant is about is almost exclusively activity done by non-whites.

(rain forests destroyed by non-western folk, wild animals killed and eaten by non-whites, etc.)

But they only ever rant at western folk.

 

Why don't you have a go at the people who actually do the damage?

The Asians, the Africans and South Americans)

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by BritManToo

[justin case]

8 minutes ago, Chazar said:

ok so  how  about the bubonic  plague  hundreds of years  ago?

if you read history, even the Spanish flu might have originated from asia...

 

you remember HK, India, Singapore, Myanmar, ... were part of UK ... people from colonies came to fight ww1 (also 2)

[Chazar]

33 minutes ago, justin case said:

if you read history, even the Spanish flu might have originated from asia...

 

you remember HK, India, Singapore, Myanmar, ... were part of UK ... people from colonies came to fight ww1 (also 2)

the argument was destruction of the eco system is  causing this not where it  originated

[Chazar]

31 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

The younger generation in China is generally much better educated than the average ... Thai for example .

Hopefully these old beliefs that Rhino horns and tiger bones and snake blood etc are a cure for something will disappear slowly ... may be now accelerated a little bit by Covid ...?  I hope so ...

well i can agree  on that

[bristolboy]

34 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

The younger generation in China is generally much better educated than the average ... Thai for example .

Hopefully these old beliefs that Rhino horns and tiger bones and snake blood etc are a cure for something will disappear slowly ... may be now accelerated a little bit by Covid ...?  I hope so ...

What i've read is that while education in the urban areas is great, out in the boondocks where most children still get educated, not so much.

[Rimmer]

Multiple off topic posts about deforestation and such have been removed, please stay on topic and stop trying to hijack them

 

Worries grow over northern hospitals as Italy's coronavirus toll surges