Italy recorded 100,000 deaths from coronavirus, a year after becoming the first western country to impose a total blockade and when it is preparing for a third wave of the pandemic.
Among those who have died in recent days are Monique Forciniti, a 55-year-old cook from Pistoia, Tuscany, and Stefano Limongi, owner of a 34-year-old sushi bar in Rome.
Italy’s newly appointed prime minister, Mario Draghi, said that exceeding the “terrible threshold” of 100,000 deaths was something “that we would never have imagined a year ago”.
On March 9, 2020, its predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, imposed unprecedented national restrictions when the pandemic broke out. At the time, Italy recorded 463 deaths from Covid-19 and 9,172 infections.
A year later, the number of deaths on Monday rose to 100,103 – the highest in Europe after the United Kingdom – while the total number of infections since the pandemic began last week has exceeded 3 million.
“A year ago, this was something that none of us doctors had ever experienced and, of course, we hoped and imagined, like everyone else, that it would end quickly,” said Saverio Chiaravalle, vice president of the Order of Doctors in the province of Varese, in Lombardy, and a close friend of Roberto Stella, the president of the order who was the first doctor in Italy to die of the virus.
“I really miss Roberto,” he said. “There is a whole debate about whether people died from Covid-19 or from Covid-19, but at the end of the day, they died because they were infected.”
Italy is battling the rapid spread of coronavirus variants, especially the UK variant, which accounts for more than 50% of new infections. Lombardy remains the most affected region, with hospitals in certain areas, especially in the province of Brescia, becoming overburdened again. Other areas of the country that were barely touched during the first wave, such as Perugia, Umbria, became the focus of viruses.
In the week between February 24 and March 2, the number of new infections increased by a third, to more than 123,000 – the highest since the beginning of December.
Hospital admissions have increased nationally, with 21,831 people being treated by Covid-19 in general wards and 2,700 in intensive care.
Italy emerged from the difficult blockade last spring in early May, but since the resurgence of infections in the fall, it has tried to avoid another widespread blockade using a system of color layer restrictions in the country’s 20 regions, depending on the severity of the virus’s spread. and the ability of hospitals to deal with this.
Stricter restrictions, which could put all or half of the country in the most difficult category of “red zone”, should be announced if the daily number of infections exceeds 30,000 by Friday.
Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister, wrote Monday on Facebook that, with the current data, “there is no alternative to more rigid measures”. In a Corriere della Sera poll over the weekend, 44% of Italians said they would support another difficult block, up from 30% two weeks earlier.
The blocking period can also be used to help speed up the vaccination program, which since January has been hampered by delays in deliveries, but also by changes in government.
Draghi, who last week blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Italy to Australia, said on Monday that the program would be “decidedly strengthened” in the coming days.
Chiaravalle said there has been a significant drop in the number of medical workers who have died or become infected with the coronavirus since vaccinations began in late December.
However, with the general population fatigued after a year of pandemic, people were less fearful of the stubbornly high daily mortality rate.
“There was really a terror a year ago,” added Chiaravalle. “It is not that they should be terrified. However, there must be a balance between fear to ensure that people continue to abide by the rules. “