Berlusconi not in ICU, claims of being on respiratory support are ‘fantasy’ – Doctors
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Three-time ex-premier and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi has a “bland” lung condition after being hospitalised with COVID-19 in Milan, a top doctor there, his personal physician, said Friday. Berlusconi is not in intensive care, Alberto Zangrillo said.
Zangrillo said the three-time former premier and media magnate had a “bland” case of lung infection from the virus. He described the clinical picture as “tranquil and comforting”.
Zangrillo described reports that Berlusconi was having respiratory support as “fantasy”. He said the media mogul’s mood was “not the best, and nor is mine”. The general condition of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader is not concerning, the hospital said.
A CAT scan revealed that he is suffering from “precocious bilateral pneumonia”. Pneumologist Luca Richedli, a member of the government’s COVID scientific and technical committee (CTS), said “I am convinced it was a precautionary hospitalisation and that there will be a positive evolution”.
His daughter Barbara, who also has COVID, said media reports she had given her father the virus after a holiday in Capri were “inhuman”.
Berlusconi, who had been in domestic isolation at his villa outside Milan since Wednesday, was taken into the San Raffaele Thursday night, mainly as a precautionary measure, FI said. Berlusconi, who turns 84 this month, had a faulty heart valve replaced in 2016. Berlusconi said earlier Thursday he was “quite well” and would take part “in all possible ways” in the campaign for local elections on September 20 and 21.
“I want to reassure you that I am quite well and I continue to work and I’ll take part in every way possible in the ongoing election campaign,” he said on the phone to a convention of FI’s women’s movement Azurro Donna in Genoa.
He said he had been “moved” by all the messages of support and sympathy he had received from well wishers and even political opponents.
