Epicentre of coronavirus outbreak in Italy offers glimmer of hope

On 21 February, the Lombardy province of Lodi was at the centre of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak when the first locally transmitted case was confirmed in the town of Codogno. The town was immediately put under lockdown, with 10 others across the province, which lies south of Milan, following suit the next day.

Today, as calls to emergency lines return to pre-outbreak levels, Lodi is offering a glimmer of hope for how the rest of Italy might overcome the pandemic and make its way out of the lockdown.

In recent weeks, the province, which has a population of about 230,000, has seen a sustained decline in the rate of new infections, with total cases by Monday reaching 2,278, a rise of 23 since Sunday.

“The first few days were very brutal, characterised by a significant number of patients with breathing difficulties,” said Stefano Paglia, the chief of the emergency unit at Codogno and Lodi city hospital.

“Now the situation is normalising, we still deal with some Covid-19 patients, but the situation has gone from one of maximum emergency to returning to more ordinary levels of management.”

Read more via The Guardian/ ANSA

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