Italy is consistently holding on to their #1 spot in Europe, with their mortality rate currently at a staggering 3.8% (*), and the Italian government's directives designed to shields the elderly are completely ignored by their people, young and old.
Coronavirus: Italy says it's had 41 new COVID-19 deaths in just 24 hours
By Euronews • 05/03/2020
Italy says it's had 41 new COVID-19 deaths in just 24 hours.
The country's civil protection agency
said on Thursday evening that 3,858 people had been infected and 148 had died.
Italy: Europe's worst-hit country
A day after announcing it would shut all schools and universities for two weeks, Italy reported a sharp hike in COVID-19 deaths.
The death toll jumped from 107 people on Wednesday to 148 on Thursday.
The northern regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy — which surround Milan — remain the worst-hit with nearly three-quarters of all the country's infections.
Lombardy has had 98 deaths and 2,251 cases; Emilia-Romagna 30 fatalities and 698 infections.
Angelo Borrelli, who heads up Italy's civil protection agency, said the outbreak had not hit the number of hospital beds available.
"For the moment, there are no major difficulties regarding the number of beds available in hospital structures," said Borrelli.
"When the intensive care beds are all occupied in one region (...) our coordination centre finds them in the neighbouring regions."
Of the 3,858 coronavirus cases, 1,790 people are in hospital and 351 in intensive care.
A government decree that took effect Thursday urged the country's famously demonstrative citizens to stay at least 1 metre apart from each other, placed restrictions on visiting nursing homes and urged the elderly not to go outside unless absolutely necessary.
That directive appeared to be widely ignored, as school closures nationwide left many Italian children in the care of their grandparents. Parks in Rome overflowed with both young and old, undercutting government efforts to shield older Italians from the virus that hits the elderly harder than others. Italy has the world's oldest population after Japan.
Lorenzo Romano, making lunch for his grandchildren, saw a positive side to having kids stay home from school.
“Altogether, it makes me happy, because then I have them around me more,” he said.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/05...-in-france-says-the-country-s-health-ministry
(* For all you new-comers to the discussion : that's 38 times more deadlier than the seasonal flu, which only kills 0.1% of those infected).