Italy recorded 100,000 coronavirus deaths, a year after it became the first Western country to impose a total exclusion, and because it had a third wave of the pandemic.
Among those who have died in recent days are Monique Forciniti, a 55-year-old school chef from Pistoia in Tuscany and Stefano Limongi, the 34-year-old owner of a sushi bar in Rome.
The newly appointed Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, of Italy, said that the ‘terrible threshold’ of 100,000 deaths would pass ‘which we could never have imagined a year ago’.
On March 9, 2020, his predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, imposed unprecedented national restrictions as the pandemic took hold. At that time, Italy had 463 deaths in Covid-19 and 9,172 infections.
A year later, the number of deaths on Monday rose to 100,103 – the highest in Europe after the UK – while the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic last week has eclipsed 3 million.
“A year ago, it was something that none of our doctors had ever experienced, and of course we hoped and thought, like everyone else, that it would end soon,” said Saverio Chiaravalle, vice president of doctors’ order in Varese province. in Lombardy and a good friend of Roberto Stella, the president of the order who was the first physician in Italy to die of the virus.
“I miss Roberto a lot,” he said. “There’s the whole debate over whether people died of Covid-19 or with Covid-19, but at the end of the day they died because they became infected with it.”
Italy is struggling with rapidly spreading coronavirus variants, especially the British variant, which accounts for more than 50% of new infections. Lombardy remains the region hardest hit, and hospitals in certain areas, particularly the province of Brescia, are once again overwhelmed. Other areas of the country that were barely touched during the first wave, such as Perugia in Umbria, became hotspots.
In the week between February 24 and March 2, the number of new infections rose by a third to more than 123,000 – the highest since early December.
Hospital admissions have increased nationwide, with 21,831 people being treated in the general ward for Covid-19 and 2,700 in intensive care.
Italy originated from the difficult exclusion of last spring in early May, but since a revival of infections in the autumn, it has been trying to avoid another general exclusion through a color restriction system of restrictions in the 20 regions of the country depending on the severity of the virus’ spread and the ability to handle hospitals.
Stricter restrictions, which could put the whole country or half in the most difficult category ‘red zone’, are expected to be announced if the daily number of infections by Friday exceeds 30,000.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook on Monday that with the current data, “there is no alternative to stricter measures”. In a poll by Corriere della Sera over the weekend, 44% of Italians said they would support another difficult exclusion, up from 30% two weeks earlier.
The lock-in period can also be used to speed up the vaccination program, which has been hampered since January by the delay in delivery, but also by the change of government.
Draghi, who last week blocked the export of 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Italy to Australia, said on Monday that the program would be ‘decisively strengthened’ in the next few days.
According to Chiaravalle, there has been a significant decrease in the number of medical workers who have died or been infected with the coronavirus since vaccinations began in late December.
However, with the general population tired after a year of the pandemic, people are less afraid of the stubborn daily mortality rate.
“There was a real scare a year ago,” Chiaravalle added. ‘It’s not that they should be afraid. However, there must be the right between fear to ensure that people still abide by the rules. ”