Italy's coronavirus toll surges as worries grow over hospitals

MILAN (ITNTV) - Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, its biggest one day rise, amid growing concern about the ability of its strained health system to cope with the relentless increase in new cases.

A banner reads "The longer you stay at home, the sooner we hug", on the sixth day of an unprecedented lockdown across of all Italy imposed to slow the outbreak of coronavirus, in Turin, Italy, March 15, 2020.

While the virus has begun spreading rapidly across Europe, Italy remains the second most heavily affected country in the world after China, where the illness first emerged, and the outbreak has shown no signs of slowing.

The government is working urgently on procuring more protective equipment, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, adding there was maximum attention on helping Lombardy, the northern region where the virus emerged just over three weeks ago.

“Our priority is to keep doctors, nurses and all our health personnel safe,” Conte said in a statement a week after his government imposed a virtual lockdown across the country in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

His government has pledged a package of measures to support businesses and families amid fears of a serious economic crisis. The measures, originally due over the weekend, are now expected after a cabinet meeting on Monday.

With 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths by Sunday - a rise of 368 or 25% in the death toll in just 24 hours - Italy’s experience has offered an alarming example for other European countries which have begun seeing sharp rises in cases over recent days.

Lombardy, the heavily populated area around the financial capital Milan, has been the worst-affected region with 1,218 deaths. Of those, 252 were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Italy has the most elderly population in Europe, with almost a quarter aged 65 and over, rendering it especially vulnerable to a disease that has predominantly killed older people.

The head of the civil protection authority, Angelo Borelli, said that Lombardy had been able to transfer 40 patients to other regions and said he was so far unaware of any cases of patients dying because of a lack of intensive care facilities.

But the health systems in Lombardy and in other regions such as Emilia Romagna and Veneto at the epicenter of the Italian outbreak have been pushed to their limits.

“The numbers have continued to grow. We’re close to the moment where we will have no more intensive care beds,” Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana told SkyTG24 television.

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