Over a thousand dead in Italy but 213 healed in one day, 115 cases in Sicily
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The coronavirus outbreak in Italy set a record in Italy: with 189 deaths in the in the last 24 hours, Italy has exceeded a thousand victims.
Now there are 1,016 – three times the deaths of the earthquake in central Italy or L’Aquila, just to give an order of magnitude – and it is yet another threshold, especially psychological, that is brought down by an emergency whose end, to feel scientists, it is still a long way off.
Of course, the figure of the healed – 213 in one day, the highest since the outbreak of the contagion – is certainly a positive indication that has to do with the containment measures taken by the authorities, but the numbers don’t seem to be slowing down: another 1049 were added to the 10,590 patients on Wednesday, for a total of 12,839, including 50 doctors from Bergamo and another player, Manolo Gabbiadini.
And ICU patients – who remain around 10% of the total – reached 1,153. It means that coronavirus-infected patients now occupy 20% of the total places available in intensive care units throughout Italy.
People in distance to each other and requested to only enter one by one wait outside a pharmacy in Cola di Rienzo street to buy protective face masks on sale at 16 euros each, in Rome, Italy, 12 March 2020. EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MEO
In Sicily there are 115 positive cases of coronavirus and 139 pending the results. This was announced by the presidency of the Sicilian region. 33 patients are hospitalized (nine in Palermo, thirteen in Catania, four in Messina, one in Caltanissetta, three in Agrigento, one in Enna and two in Trapani), five of whom are in intensive care, while 78 are in home isolation, two are cured and two deceased.
The government has already said that they will increase by 50% – and those in sub-intensive care by 100% – but it takes time It means that coronavirus-infected patients now occupy 20% of the total places available in intensive care units throughout Italy.
“Get used to a long war”
Italians should get used to a long war against the coronavirus, health ministry consultant Walter Ricciardi told Italian TV on Thursday.
Ricciardi, who is also a member of the World Health Organization’s executive council, told Agorà that “we should start getting used to a long war”. He noted that the SARS pandemic, which was less contagious, “ended in May-June.
“This is much more contagious than SARS and I have the impression that, if we are lucky and all work together, we should get through to the summer.” “That’s when we should be able to return to normal life,” he said.
Italy is in lockdown with all commercial activities, except for essential shops such as food stores and pharmacies, shut to help contain the spread of the virus.
