Doctors focus on likely survivors
Overworked doctors at the centre of Italy’s coronavirus crisis have said that they are forced to overlook older, sicker patients to focus on those who are younger and more likely to survive.
In Lombardy, where the virus first emerged last month, 440 sufferers are packed into intensive care, creating a wartime scenario where only patients with the best chance of being saved get full attention. Operating theatres have been turned into intensive care units and some patients suffering strokes or other traumas cannot be treated.
Italy reported 168 deaths yesterday, the highest daily rise since the epidemic began, taking the national toll to 631. There are more than 10,000 confirmed cases in the country.
‘‘If someone between 80 and 95 has serious breathing difficulties, you probably don’t proceed,’’ Christian Salaroli, an anaesthetist in a hard-pressed hospital in Bergamo, said.
Marco Vergano, head anaesthetist at San Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Turin, in the neighbouring Piedmont region, said: ‘‘We can’t invent new intensive care unit [ICU] beds. It’s important to understand that patients who arrive with a grave interstitial pneumonia from Covid-19 will not be in intensive care for a few days, but for weeks.’’
As hospital beds run out fast in Lombardy, the region’s health chief Giulio Gallera warned that rather than merely restricting movement, as per the new lockdown rules, all businesses, shops and transport in the region needed to shut for 15 days.
‘‘Otherwise, with another 15 to 20 days of increases in the people in emergency rooms and intensive care we won’t be able to cope,’’ he said.
Elena Pagliarini, 40, a nurse from Cremona, has become a symbol of the desperate struggle against the disease after newspapers published photographs of her fast asleep at her desk, still wearing a surgical mask and gown.
The picture had been taken by a colleague at the end of an exhausting night shift in the ICU.
Malta and Spain announced a ban on air traffic from Italy. Malta turned away another cruise ship and British Airways cancelled flights to the whole country. Austria barred travellers from crossing the border without a medical certificate. Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong and Germany strengthened travel advisories or flat-out urged their citizens to leave. Even the Vatican erected a new barricade at the edge of St. Peter’s Square.
‘‘Get out of northern Italy if you’re there. We don’t know how long the Italian authorities will keep the window open,’’ said Erik Broegger Rasmussen, head of consular services for Denmark’s foreign ministry.
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. More than 115,800 people have been infected worldwide and over 4000 have died.
The World Health Organisation
says people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while severe cases may last three to six weeks. In mainland China, almost three-fourths of its more than 80,000 patients have recovered since December.
China
The diminishing threat in China prompted President Xi Jinping to visit the epicentre of its outbreak yesterday and declare: ‘‘We will certainly defeat this epidemic.’’
Xi’s trip to the central city of Wuhan – his first since the start of the outbreak – was the latest sign that China is edging back toward normal after weeks of extreme quarantine measures. China reported just 19 new infections yesterday, down from thousands each day last month.
‘‘Things are slowly returning to normal,’’ said Yang Tianxiao, a finance worker in Beijing, where the city government is gradually easing restrictions that kept many office workers at home.
But in growing swaths of the globe outside China, virus-related disruptions were increasingly becoming the new normal. More than 100 countries – over half of the United Nations’ membership – have now confirmed cases. Panama and Mongolia, which borders China, were the newest countries to announce infections.
France’s government advised voters to bring their own pens to local elections Sunday so they won’t have to share. Morocco reported its first death of a virusinfected person – only the second confirmed fatality in Africa. In Spain and France, soccer’s biggest stars prepared to play in empty stadiums. Bans on public gatherings silenced entertainers.
The virus reached into the corridors of power. In the United States, several senior politicians were self-quarantined. The chief commander of Poland’s armed forces, Genera Jaroslaw Mika, was among those newly infected.
Growing numbers of children were being taught online, as school closures spread. Fifteen countries have ordered nationwide school closures and 14 have implemented localised closures, spanning Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, the UN’s education agency said.
The virus has shaken global markets, with stocks on Tuesday taking their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since 2008 and oil prices suffering their most brutal losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War.
Yesterday, US stocks, oil and other financial markets around the world clawed back some ground after their historic plunge the previous day on hopes that the US and other governments will pump in more aid for the virus-weakened global economy.
But market watchers say investors are likely to see more big swings until the number of infections decelerates, and fear was still rampant that economies stood at the brink of recession. The travel industry is taking a beating: Europe’s airports said they expect 187 million fewer passengers this year.
‘‘We are in a global panic,’’ said Estelle Brack, an economist in Paris. ‘‘We are in the deep unknown.’’
Xi’s trip to Wuhan was the latest effort by the ruling Communist Party to shed a favourable light on its handling of the crisis. Xi was conspicuously absent from the public eye in the early days of the outbreak and alarms were not sounded until late January. Wuhan and nearby cities – over 60 million people – have been under lockdown since then.
Xi addressed patients and medical workers via a video link. He also strolled through an apartment complex where residents are still quarantined.
‘‘Wuhan must prevail, Hubei must prevail, all of China must prevail,’’ Xi said.
With patient numbers falling, Wuhan closed the last of 16 temporary hospitals used mainly to house those with mild symptoms.
Authorities in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, stepped up preparations for resuming business production, reopened some roads and announced a colour-coded app-based system that will allow people who are deemed healthy to travel freely in the province.
Britain
A British health minister has the new coronavirus – the first UK lawmaker to be diagnosed with the disease.
Nadine Dorries, a junior minister in the Department of Health, said she is self-isolating as she recovers.
Festival postponed
The Coachella music festival in Southern California has been postponed amid virus concerns.
The festival is organised by concert promoter Goldenvoice, which said it would be rescheduled for two weekends in October.