Italy set for more restrictions as death toll exceeds China’s
Italy surpassed China as the country with the most people killed by the coronavirus on Thursday, local time, after the Italian death toll surged to 3405.
Italy announced another 427 fatalities, meaning it had overtaken the 3249 victims to have died so far in China.
The new number was a chilling indicator of how the focus of the health emergency had switched from Asia to Europe.
Italy is by far the worst affected European country, averaging more than 350 deaths a day since Sunday.
The country reached the grim milestone on the same day that Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged three months ago, recorded no new infections for the first time. Among the worst-hit Italian cities were Bergamo and Brescia in the northern region of Lombardy, the seat of Italy’s outbreak.
In Brescia and its surrounding province, there has been an explosion in the last few days in the number of people infected, to nearly 4000. More than 460 people have died.
‘‘These days have been our September 11,’’ said Emilio Del Bono, the city’s mayor. ‘‘We are living through an emergency of huge proportions.’’
He called for a stricter lockdown to restrict people’s movements, including the closing of all banks, newsagents and tobacconists.
The city of Bergamo, northeast of Milan and 50km west of Brescia, has been dubbed ‘‘Italy’s Wuhan’’ and is struggling to deal with around five times the number of dead than normal.
Luca Cavalera, a regional health official, said: ‘‘We are on the verge of collapse – we no longer know where to put patients and, meanwhile, people outside continue to go around as if nothing was happening.’’
Funeral companies have been working non-stop for two weeks, their staff grabbing just a few hours’ sleep each night. So many bodies had piled up at the city’s overwhelmed cemetery that more than 60 coffins were transported to crematoriums in other parts of the country by a convoy of 15 Italian army trucks.
There was an urgent need for more medical staff and equipment to deal with the growing number of seriously ill patients.
Stefano Fagiuoli, the director of gastroenterology, hepatology and transplantology at Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Bergamo, said: ‘‘We are in full emergency. Our physicians and nurses are working round the clock to fight this incredible situation. We do not know how long this pandemic will last. We desperately need nurses and doctors as well as ventilators and individual protection devices.’’
With infections and deaths increasing at an alarming rate, Italian authorities are threatening to introduce even more draconian measures.
Supermarket opening hours could be curtailed, public transport further restricted and people banned from taking a stroll or going for a run – the latter being a grey area until now, with uncertainty as to what was allowed.
Although the rate of infections is slowing, authorities say there are still too many people out on the streets, elevating the risk of spreading the virus.
Around 1.2 million Italians have been questioned by police and soldiers since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed, of whom 52,000 were charged with having no valid reason for being out of their homes. Attilio Fontana, the governor of Lombardy, said that people needed to stay at home, ‘‘or we will be forced to take more rigorous measures’’.
A spell of beautiful weather has not helped matters, tempting many people out of their homes to enjoy the sunshine, blue skies and blossoming trees.
‘‘On the one hand I see people going for a stroll, and on the other I’m seeing people (in hospital) who are unable to breathe,’’ he said. ‘‘Enough.’’
He added: ‘‘If the current measures are not sufficient we will have to intervene further.’’
The governor told Corriere della Sera newspaper: ‘‘The numbers from this epidemic continue to be extremely worrying. I cannot accept that so many people are dying each day. And I get angry with those who still don’t get it, or pretend not to.
‘‘We are asking people to stay at home – not because we enjoy being baddies but because this is the only weapon we have to stop the spread of the contagion.’’
He said the situation remained ‘‘terrible’’, with exhausted doctors and nurses performing ‘‘superhuman’’ feats as they tried to save as many people as possible.
Vincenzo Spadafora, the minister for sport, also called on Italians to give up physical activities to try to stem the spread of the virus.
‘‘These are the most dangerous days and I do not see the need to do physical exercise outside the home,’’ he said. ‘‘If we need to take tougher measures, we will do so.’’
Luca Zaia, the president of Veneto, which borders Lombardy, echoed the call for a tougher lockdown. ‘‘I hope there will soon be measures to restrict people jogging or going out for walks. I’m sorry but the alternative is intensive care, hospitalisation and contagion.’’
The national lockdown was meant to end on March 25 but Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, said it would be extended.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron complained that too many people were ‘‘taking lightly’’ confinement rules imposed on Tuesday. ‘‘When I see people going to the park, to the beach or rushing to markets, they haven’t understood the message,’’ he said on a visit to the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
His comments came after unions for medical interns called for ‘‘total and absolute confinement of the entire population’’ and warnings that the number of people outdoors threatened to torpedo attempts to curb the epidemic, which in France had killed 372 people.
Earlier, Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, lashed out at ‘‘imbeciles’’ who refused to obey the confinement rules.
‘‘Some people think they are little heroes when they break the rules. Well no, they are imbeciles,’’ he said. ‘‘They pose a risk to themselves, their family, their loved ones but also to health workers who will be there even if they behave stupidly, to help them, treat them, save them.’’ –