COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus.[1] One week later an Italian man repatriated to Italy from the city of Wuhan, China, was hospitalized and confirmed as the third case in Italy.[4] Clusters of cases were later detected in Lombardy and Veneto on 21 February,[5] with the first deaths on 22 February.[6] By the beginning of March, there had been confirmed cases in all regions of Italy.[7][8][9][10]
On 31 January, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters.[11] On 8 March 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expanded the quarantine to all of Lombardy and 14 other northern provinces, and on the following day to all of Italy, placing more than 60 million people in lockdown.[12][13][14] On 11 March 2020, Conte prohibited nearly all commercial activity except for supermarkets and pharmacies.[15][16] On 21 March, the Italian government closed all non-essential businesses and industries, and restricted movement of people.[17] In May, many restrictions were gradually eased,[18] and on 3 June, freedom of movement across regions and other European countries was restored.[19] In October, Italy was hit by the second wave of the pandemic, which brought the government to introduce further restrictions on movement and social life, which were gradually eased in mid-2021.[20]
By 18 January, Italy had tested about 48 million people.[21] Due to the limited number of tests performed, the real number of infected people in Italy, as in other countries, is estimated to be higher than the official count.[22][23][24][25] In May 2020, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) estimated 11,000 more deaths for COVID-19 in Italy than the confirmed ones.[26][27] This estimation was later confirmed in October 2020 by a second Istat report.[28][29] In March 2021, Istat published a new report in which it detected an excess mortality of 100,526 deaths in 2020, compared to the average of the previous five years.[30] Moreover, 2020 became the year with the highest number of deaths since 1945, when Italy was fighting in World War II on its soil.[31]
During the peak of the pandemic, Italy's number of active cases was one of the highest in the world.[32] As of 17 March 2023, Italy has 141,988 active cases.[32] Overall, there have been 26,719,139 confirmed cases and 196,910 deaths (a rate of 3,335.339 deaths per million population),[2] while there have been 25,320,467 recoveries or dismissals.[3]
As of 4 February 2023, a total of 150,178,254 vaccine doses have been administered.[33]
Background
On 31 December 2019, the Health Commission of Wuhan, Hubei, China, informed the WHO about a cluster of acute pneumonia cases with unknown origin in its province. On 9 January 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) reported the identification of a novel coronavirus (later identified as the SARS-CoV-2) as the cause.[34] In late January 2020, following the developments of COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China, on 3 February, Italy set up enhanced screening measures, including thermal cameras and medical staff at airports.[35]
Impact
Healthcare
The pandemic outbreak heightened the pressure on the Italian healthcare system.[230]
On 9 March, Alessia Bonari, a nurse from Grosseto who worked at a hospital in Milan, posted on Instagram stating that she was physically strained from being overworked and was scared to work after treating over 10,000 patients who have tested positive. Bonari and her co-workers had been extremely exhausted due to the pressures of work, and according to her, health caretakers had been working in uncomfortable conditions. The post, which reached global notoriety, contained a photo of her bruised face from wearing unfit masks and hazmat goggles, and stated that "the protective devices are bad." She concluded her post persuading others "to be selfless, to stay at home and thus protect those who are most fragile."[231][232]