Italy set for further devastation as dead outnumber China

Focal point of the pandemic moves from Asia to Europe after Wuhan, where the virus first started, records no new infections for the first time

‘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. Enough’

Europe

By Nick Squires in Rome and Henry Samuel in Paris

ITALY surpassed China as the country with the most people killed by the coronavirus yesterday, after the Italian death toll surged to 3,405.

Italy announced another 427 fatalities, meaning it had overtaken the 3,249 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 4,000. 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, north-east of Milan and 30 miles 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 of

ficial, 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 up 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 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,” he said.

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.”

French police handed out more than 4,000 fines around the country within 24 hours of the confinement rules being announced.

A group of 12 people who were caught having a barbecue in a village outside Paris were fined €1,600 (£1,485).

“That makes for a rather expensive barbecue but you don’t play Russian roulette with health,” Christophe Dietrich, the local mayor, told Le Parisien.

In Germany, the number of cases jumped by over a third to reach 15,270.

So far 44 people had died in Germany, leaving experts puzzled as to why the country had such a low death rate, particularly compared with Italy.

However, the German military was on standby to help should the situation deteriorate.

“We are preparing for a worst-case scenario where a very large number of people will become infected and we have the human resources to help,” said Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer, the defence minister.

The increase in cases raised concerns that Germany could end up with thousands of people needing hospitalisation, with its healthcare system as overwhelmed as that of Italy.

‘We ask people to stay at home, not because we enjoy being baddies, but because this is the only weapon we have to stop the contagion’