Italy’s death toll from the COVID-19 virus is far higher than reported ‘because the country cannot spare resources to test every dead body’, a report has claimed.
Italy first emerged as the European epicentre of the virus before rocketing to become the country with the most deaths from infection globally. Their death toll currently stands at 13,155, dwarfing the 3,318 recorded in China, where the outbreak began.
A nursing home in Coccaglio, close to Milan, reported that 24 residents died during March, none of whom were tested for the coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported, claiming the same situation was true in another care facility in a nearby town called Lodi.
Funeral service workers transport a coffin of a victim of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a ceremony in the southern town of Cisternino, Italy on Monday
Medical staff of a mobile unit take samples from a woman to test for Covid-19, at the Santa Maria della Pieta’ hospital complex, in Rome yesterday
A man wearing a makeshift protective mask walks during the emergency blockade of the Coronavirus Covid-19 in Rome, Italy today
The publication analysed deaths in Lombardy, one of the areas hardest-hit by the disease, and found they are not isolated. Many citizens who die from COVID-19 do not make it to hospital to be tested, the WSJ reported.
This means the human toll from the virus is likely to be much more devastating than originally thought.
Older people in hard-to-reach locations and those unable to access treatment due to the health-care crisis are particularly at risk to becoming an uncounted victim of the virus.
‘There are many more dead than are officially declared. But this is not a j’accuse [an accusation].
People died and they were never tested because time and resources are limited,’ Eugenio Fossati, deputy mayor of Coccaglio, told the WSJ of deaths caused by the virus.
According to interviews with local officials, doctors and funeral-service providers, the people most in contact with the dead, the analysis predicts that around two of the main virus hotspots in the country, Bergamo and Brescia, the death toll is at least double what has been recorded since February.
Medical personel and patients at a newly set up intensive care unit for the treatment of Coronavirus Covid-19 in the physiotherapy assistance gym of the Poliambilanza hospital in Brescia, Italy yesterday
Carabinieri officers, wearing protective suits, pull a coffin last week in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Northern Italy. The Italian Army has been brought in to ferry coffins out of Bergamo and its province, amongst Italy’s most plagued towns, as its morgue and its crematorium struggle to cope with the surging coronavirus death toll
In Coccaglio, which has 8,700 residents, just 85 people died. Since the outbreak in late February, 56 have died, with only 12 of the people known as dying of coronavirus.
Italy’s approach to counting those infected has been similar to many countries across the globe, testing citizens who show symptoms of the virus.
Experts believe that the 111,000 recorded by Italy is undercounted and put the true number between hundreds of thousands and six million.
In Bergamo, which has been decimated by the virus, 125 deaths were recorded during March last year. For the same month in 2020, deaths rocketed to 553, with just 201 linked to the virus.
Specialists of the Russian Defense Ministry’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops pictured while disinfecting the area by the Cardinal Giorgio Gusmini senior care center on Tuesday
Two Carabinieri officers, wearing protective suits, stand inside a warehouse used to stock coffins in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Northern Italy last week
The 352 deaths for the period are almost double the amount recorded last year.
‘Other countries that have the good fortune to be seven to 14 days behind us have to use that time to erect defenses,’ Giorgio Gori, Bergamo’s mayor, told WSJ.
‘We were first, and we weren’t prepared. Any leaders looking at us and not reacting vigorously will have a lot to answer for.’
Doctors and officials claim the numbers recorded often dwarf the average monthly death toll, with some regions matching the amount of deaths usually recorded over six months.
Covid patients arrive from hospitals to the Hotel Cristal Palace. Coronavirus outbreak, Bergamo, Italy yesterday
A family doctor based in Brescia, Eleonora Colombi, said that people who die outside hospitals, waiting for treatment, are not normally tested for the virus.
‘Normally you don’t have so many people all dying at the same time,’ she said.
She added that the elderly and cancer patients are now dying at home because ambulances won’t come out if you are 94 years old due to a long waiting list.
In certain areas, the lockdown has prevented officials from posting death notices, a tradition that is maintained in certain towns, leaving people unaware of who’s dying, and others unable to reach out and provide support for those in mourning.
Three days ago, the number of new coronavirus cases in Italy were the lowest in nearly a fortnight, suggesting the country’s social distancing measures are working.
The World Health Organisation said the country’s epidemic should start to stabilise as Italy announced the lockdown will last until at least mid-April.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said any easing of containment measures would be done incrementally to ensure Italy did not give up gains it had made.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza later announced ‘all containment measures would be extended at least until Easter’ on April 12.
Civil Protection Service Chief Angelo Borrelli said Wednesday: ‘We saw 1,590 people recover in the past 24 hours. This is the highest number of recoveries recorded since the start of the pandemic.’
Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities from the virus.