"If we stopped respecting the rules, if we decided to relax these rules, all the sacrifices would be in vain," he told a news conference late on Wednesday.He added the government would start softening the measures only with the approval of its scientific advisors, without setting an exact date.In the wealthy northern region of Lombardy, the epicentre of the outbreak, the daily tally of new infections jumped 50% compared with the day before, reversing a recent downtrend.The daily death toll in the region also grew, and a study suggested the number of fatalities is far higher than officially registered.In the hardest-hit area around the city of Bergamo, some 4,500 people died of coronavirus in March, according to data analysis firm InTwig, while only 2,060 were included in the data provided by the Civil Protection Agency.Most of the elderly victims died in their homes or in old peoples' homes and, because they never made it to hospital, were never tested for the virus, according to the study based on data from doctors and overseen by a professor at Bergamo University.Separate data from national statistics office ISTAT showed deaths in the north of Italy doubled in the first three weeks of March compared with the average during the same period between 2015 and 2019, reflecting the onset of coronavirus.In Bergamo, fatalities more than quadrupled, while they increased between two- and three-fold in several other Lombardy cities. Since discovering its first infections in February, The study published by the Superior Health Institute and National Statistics Institute ISTAT showed the coronavirus was the direct cause of death for 89 per cent of the 4,942 victims in the sample.The remaining 11 per cent had coronavirus but died as a direct result of other medical conditions, including heart disease cancer and dementia.However, the virus might have aggravated their condition and accelerated their death.The study was based on deaths reported at the end of May, when Italy had already loosened its rigid lockdown rules.Pneumonia was observed in 79 per cent of the people whose deaths were directly tied to coronavirus and was the most common complication for COVID-19 patients, followed by other respiratory diseases.The report showed COVID-19 was also fatal for some people who did not have any underlying health problem.“In 28.2 per cent of the cases analyzed, there are no other causes of death,” the report said.Get a roundup of the most important and intriguing stories, delivered to your inboxGet a roundup of the most important and intriguing stories, delivered to your inbox
Italy’s death toll from the Wuhan coronavirus could be much higher than previously reported, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday.
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's daily death toll from coronavirus on Wednesday was the lowest for six days, authorities said, but the overall number of new infections grew and the government extended a national lockdown until at least the middle of April.
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The health care system in Italy’s Lombardy region has been stretched to the limit during the coronavirus outbreak, with numerous reports of hospital staff being forced to resort to war-time triage procedures. Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. In some small towns at the heart of the outbreak they were up 10-fold this year compared with 2019.With Italy's economy on its knees due to the lockdown, a survey of purchasing managers showed manufacturing activity fell in March at its sharpest rate for 11 years, and Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said this year would see a steep recession.He told Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper a forecast by employers' lobby Confindustria that gross domestic product would shrink by 6% was "realistic". (Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Sonya Hepinstall)VOTE: Are you concerned about an increase in COVID-19 cases after the long weekend? For now it is partly because of vast differences in the affected patients -- young vs. old, smokers vs. not, writes MD and infection specialist Kent Sepkowitz. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus.