Up to date
Photo:
Italy’s Prime Minister says the country is under a national lockdown to prevent a total “collapse of the system” as COVID-19 cases increase. (Reuters: Alberto Lingria)
COVID-19 has killed extra individuals in Italy than another nation.
The death toll is now higher than China’s, and the variety of infections continues to develop.
Hospitals at the moment are so overloaded that Italian doctors have been forced to choose who they treat.
The navy needed to transfer coffins from the cemetery in Bergamo to neighbouring provinces as a result of there was no room left to bury them.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte imposed a nationwide lockdown to stop what he referred to as “the collapse of the system”.
However one small city within the nation’s north says it’s doing surprisingly nicely.
Vo, within the area of Veneto, is true in the midst of what Italy is looking its coronavirus pink zone.
However native officers say there hasn’t been a brand new case of COVID-19 there since March 13.
The city had the primary confirmed COVID-19-related loss of life in Italy — a 78-year-old man on February 23.
It was one among 11 villages within the nation’s north which have been shut down because the nation’s outbreak started.
The city swung into motion — and its measures look like working.
What did Vo do?
Researchers from the College of Padua, together with Veneto regional officers and the Purple Cross, determined to check all residents for COVID-19.
Round three,300 individuals have been examined, even when that they had no signs.
“We examined everyone,” Andrea Crisanti, professor of microbiology on the College of Padua, instructed the ABC’s The World Right this moment.
“We discovered that an alarming portion of individuals have been already constructive for the virus.”
The town of Vo is located in the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy.
Almost three per cent — or 89 Vo residents — have been contaminated with COVID-19.
Much more alarming for Professor Crisanti and his colleagues was that lots of the sufferers had no signs.
Your questions on coronavirus answered:
Professor Crisanti stated Italian well being authorities didn’t appear involved by Vo’s an infection price.
So the city took cost.
Vo put all COVID-19 sufferers in lockdown
Each Vo resident who examined constructive for the virus was put in quarantine of their houses.
What the consultants are saying about coronavirus:
“They have been requested to not exit, and to not have contact with another individuals,” Professor Crisanti stated.
The researchers determined in opposition to sending sufferers to hospital to stop them spreading the illness there.
“In precept many individuals within the hospital have been contaminated. Many medical doctors, many nurses, many sufferers. This may very well be a significant supply of an infection,” he stated.
After two weeks of quarantine, the researchers carried out one other spherical of mass testing in Vo.
The speed of COVID-19 an infection had dropped from practically three per cent to zero.41 per cent.
Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, has now declared the city of Vo the “healthiest place in Italy”.
”That is proof that the testing system works,” he instructed the Italian information company ANSA.
Vo says testing and social isolation is vital
Professor Crisanti acknowledges that mass testing can be tougher to hold out in a big metropolis.
However he believes that Italy may have been far more proactive in containing the outbreak.
“As quickly as we made information accessible that the an infection price in Vo was three per cent, they need to have rung the alarm bell,” he says.
“If at the moment we had locked down all of the cities with instances and carried out intensive testing, we might not be on this state of affairs.”
Some international locations have restricted their assessments.
Within the UK, you possibly can solely be examined for COVID-19 in case you are over 65 or have been admitted to hospital.
To preserve the variety of testing kits in Australia, you have to meet certain criteria to get the swab.
Meaning solely individuals who have had direct contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, the elderly or patients admitted to hospital with respiratory illness can be examined.
South Korea, in the meantime, has been testing as much as 20,000 individuals a day.
The World Heath Organisation this week referred to as on all international locations to ramp up the quantity of testing they’re doing.
“We’ve a easy message to all international locations — check, check, check,” WHO’s Director Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated.
“All international locations ought to have the ability to check all suspected instances. They can’t combat this pandemic blindfolded.”
Matters:
First posted