Italy’s coronavirus toll surges as worries grow over hospitals
(Sunday March 15)
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, its biggest one day rise, amid growing concern about the ability of its strained health system to cope with the relentless increase in new cases.
While the virus has begun spreading rapidly across Europe, Italy remains the second most heavily affected country in the world 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 just over three weeks ago.
“Our priority is to keep doctors, nurses and all our health personnel safe,” Conte said in a statement a week after his government imposed a virtual lockdown across the country in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
With 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths by Sunday - a rise of 368 or 25% 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.
But I was assured weeks ago that this was a “nothing-burger” by all the “geniuses”