The number of COVID-19 patients in Italian intensive care units increased by 12.9% in the period from October 27 to November 2, reversing a trend that had seen ICU admissions falling, the independent Italian GIMBE health foundation said in its weekly coronavirus monitoring report on Thursday.
It reported a 16.6% rise in new COVID cases in this period, going from 25,585 the previous week to 29,841, and a 14.9% increase in the admission of coronavirus sufferers to ordinary hospital wards.
The report said the number of COVID sufferers to die in the last week was relatively steady at 257, compared to 249 the previous week. GIMBE stressed that the pressure on the health service remained relatively low, with the proportion of ordinary-hospital places and intensive-care beds taken up by COVID patients standing at 5% and 4% respectively.
Italy reported 63 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, against 41 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 5,188 from 2,834.
Italy has registered 132,224 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.8 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 3,029 on Wednesday, up from 2,992 a day earlier.
There were 31 new admissions to intensive care units, edging down from 34 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 381 from a previous 385.
Some 717,311 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 238,354, the health ministry said.
Photo – An Italian municipal policemen with a protective mask, due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic emergency, passes by the statue of the Capitoline Wolf on the Capitol Hill in Rome, Italy. EPA-EFE/RICCARDO ANTIMIANI
