Covid-19: Epidemic Spiraling Out Of Control In Italy. Major Northern Region And Cities To Be Under New Lockdowns. 241 Dead, 6245 Infected, 612 Critical
The Covid-19 epidemic in Italy is fast spiraling out of control, with hundreds of thousands of Italians manifesting symptoms and crowded hospitals unable to handle patients due to shortage of staff, medical supplies and test-kits. To try to curtail the further spread of the coronavirus to the Southern regions despite already having cases in all 20 regions in Italy, the Italian government intends to quarantine the entire Lombardy region around Milan as well as areas around Venice and the northern cities of Parma and Rimini.
A preview of the draft of the government resolution obtained by Italy's Corriere Della Sera newspaper and other media said movement into and out of the regions would be severely restricted. Milan is the Italian financial capital and has a population of just under 1.4 million people. The entire Lombardy region is home to 10 million.
The new lockdowns also covers parts of the Veneto region around Venice as well as Emilia-Romagna’s Parma and Rimini. Those three cities have a combine population of another 560,000 people.
The new lockdowns came as the number of coronavirus cases in Italy, Europe's worst-hit country, leapt by more than 1,200 in a 24-hour period, according to the Civil Protection Agency. This is the biggest daily rise since the epidemic began two weeks ago.
As of 1800 hrs, on Saturday in Italy, health officials in Milan said that the deaths due to the coronavirus were up to 241, and those infected were now 6245 and in critical 612. They however warned that this was not the final toll for the day as new figures were being reported in by the hour and a combined toll for the next 24 hours would be officially released on Sunday.
The Covid-19 disease was first confirmed in Italy 15 days ago and is focused on a handful of hotspots in the north but cases have now been confirmed in each of the country's 20 regions, with deaths recorded in eight of them.
The government approved a plan to employ up to 20,000 new doctors and nurses to respond to the emergency on Friday.
Compiled showed that the northern regions of Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and Veneto were the hardest hit, representing 85 per cent of national cases overall and 92 per cent of recorded deaths.
In the worst affected areas, Italy's hospitals are under growing strain. The number of patients in intensive care rose to 612, up 28 per cent from the day before.
National Health Institute chief Silvio Brusaferro said the average age of patients who have died was over 81. They were prevalently male and more than 80 per cent had more than two underlying health conditions.
The coronavirus outbreak that originated from Wuhan China has killed more than 3,600 people worldwide and spread across more than 99 nations outside China and wreaking havoc globally, thanks to the incompetence of the Chinese Government in controlling the situation in the initial days and for not preventing its Chinese citizens from travelling around the world to pseard the virus and cause misery to others. To date the arrogant Chinese President has yet to make a public apology to the world for the mess that it has created.
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