[ad_1]
Issued on:
Rome (AFP)
Italy became the European country with the highest number of pandemic victims on Saturday, its new total of 64,036 deaths surpassing Britain, according to an AFP tally.
The Italian Health Ministry said 649 people had succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours and that 19,903 new cases had been diagnosed.
Globally, the United States has reported the highest number of deaths from Covid-19, with 295,539 as of Saturday at 1100 GMT, followed by Brazil, India and Mexico.
According to the AFP tally for Europe, Italy surpassed Great Britain, which has reported 64,026 deaths, followed by France with 57,567 and Spain with 47,624.
Italy was the first European country to suffer a wave of infections earlier this year and imposed a nationwide lockdown against what was then a terrifying new deadly virus.
The UK’s death toll surpassed Italy’s on May 6, with nearly 30,000 deaths, and for a time during the summer, the southern European nation appeared to have weathered the storm.
But despite the introduction of massive testing, cases began to rise again in early fall, as it did in many other nations, and deaths inevitably followed.
Italy’s national medical association said on Friday that a total of 251 doctors have died from the virus.
Among the most recent was Francesco Gasparini, a 67-year-old anesthetist who came out of retirement to help with the crisis.
“In this second wave, it is mainly the general practitioners who are paying the greatest toll,” warned Filippo Anelli, director of the FNOMCeO association.
He blamed the “increased circulation” of asymptomatic patients, but added that all the doctors did not have the necessary protective equipment.
“We must end this massacre,” he said.
If the death toll continues to rise as it has in recent weeks, the so-called second wave could turn as deadly as the first, which recorded nearly 35,000 deaths in late July.
While the UK and France imposed partial national closures this fall to try to control the cases, Italy opted to impose the toughest restrictions in the worst-hit regions to protect a struggling economy.
– Battle not yet won –
Giovanni Rezza, head of infectious diseases at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS), Italy’s main health agency, said this week that the situation was improving “but very, very slowly.”
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said at a symposium on Saturday that “I am concerned about the two weeks of Christmas holidays. We are facing a dramatic pandemic that is ongoing, the battle has not yet been won.”
Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia told Italian television that the country was still “in the most critical phase” with an “intolerable” number of ongoing daily deaths.
He cautioned that unless people take a very careful approach, “the risk of a third wave is almost certain.”
The death rate per 100,000 inhabitants in Italy, 104 on December 10, is one of the highest in the world, but the reasons remain controversial.
The Italian population of 60 million people is older than most in Europe, and official figures show that the average age of patients is over 80 years old.
“The reasons for the high death toll remain a mystery,” Lorenzo Richiardi, professor of epidemiology and medical statistics at the University of Turin, told La Stampa last week (December 4).
“One theory is that it is because we have an elderly population, but that is not enough.”
© 2020 AFP
