Italy braced for rash of new cases in south
Doctors and nurses in Italy’s overwhelmed northern hospitals have welcomed a slight stabilising in the number of coronavirus infections but fear the virus is still silently spreading in the country’s south, 21⁄2 weeks into the West’s most extreme nationwide shutdown.
As the dead in Italy keep piling up, virologists say the actual number of cases could be up to more than five times as high as the official count, which reached just shy of 86,500 yesterday. That means infections will still climb, even with Italians ordered to stay home for all but essential activity.
Italy, one of the hotspots in the global pandemic, has by far the most virus deaths of any nation in the world, a grim tally that reached 9134 yesterday. Italy also surpassed China in its number of confirmed cases, and has more than any nation besides the United States.
Officials expressed cautious optimism that the exponential spread of the virus is starting to slow in the hard-hit north, thanks to two weeks of militaryenforced stay-at-home orders. For several days this week, new infections and deaths showed signs of slowing, and hospital emergency rooms weren’t seeing the tsunami of patients that characterised the first weeks of the pandemic following Italy’s first positive test on February 20.
Nationwide, at least 50 doctors have died and 6414 medical personnel have tested positive.
The need is growing in the south, where hospitals are even less prepared and equipped than the prosperous north. In one week, Puglia in the ‘‘heel’’ of the Italian peninsula went from 478 cases to 1182, with a doubling of intensive care patients. Campania also doubled its caseload to 1310 and tripled the number of people in ICUs.
Praying in an empty St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis yesterday likened the coronavirus pandemic to a storm that leaves ‘‘all of us fragile and disoriented’’ and needing each other’s help and comfort.
The Holy See has confirmed four virus cases in the tiny independent citystate in the middle of Rome – including an Italian prelate who lives at a Vatican hotel where Francis resides. It has declined to say if Francis, who a few weeks ago had a cold, has been tested for Covid-19, and if so, what the result was.