Corona crisis in Italy: Hundreds more dead - but virus wave slows down

In Italy the situation is getting worse. The peak of the crisis still does not seem to have been reached. Experts make assumptions.

• The Coronavirus * pandemic has hit Italy particularly hard.
• The number of official deaths from the lung disease Covid-19 * has now reached almost 5,000. Lombardy is particularly affected.
• The curfew in Italy * has been in effect since March 9. It was significantly tightened again on March 21.
• Here you will find the basic facts about the corona virus and the corona news from Germany. You can also find current case numbers in Germany as a map. The following recommendations for corona protective measures are currently available.

Update of March 23, 6:57 p.m .: The Italian authorities reported around 600 new deaths due to the corona virus on Monday, a slightly lower increase than on Sunday. The total number of registered fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic is just under 6,080 , according to civil protection in Rome. On Saturday, the record death toll for a day was 793.

Even with the total number of infected, the plus is no longer quite as high. Nevertheless, several thousand newly infected people were counted. The number of cases on Monday was almost 64,000 people who had tested positive for the pathogen Sars-CoV-2.

The experts in Italy now hope that the slowdown in the virus wave will continue in the coming days. The country has had a curfew since March 10.

Corona virus in Italy: police can now use drones to monitor the population

Update of March 23, 6:35 p.m .: The Italian civil aviation authority has approved the use of drones to enforce the corona-related exit restrictions.

As the authority announced in Rome on Monday, the local police may also use the aircraft for surveillance over inhabited areas under simplified legal conditions. The approval is initially valid until April 3.

Update of March 23, 5:50 p.m .: Italian corporations such as the car manufacturer FCA and the fashion company Prada are converting their production to the manufacture of protective articles due to the coronavirus crisis.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will rebuild one of its factories to manufacture respirators , CEO Mike Manley said in a letter to the staff that was available to the German press agency on Monday. The products are said to be donated to medical personnel. The goal is to produce more than a million face masks per month. According to the company, the protective masks are to be manufactured in an Asian plant.

Video: Corona crisis - which professions are systemically important?

Corona crisis in Italy: Prada fashion group produces medical gowns and protective masks

The Milan fashion group Prada began producing 80,000 doctor's coats and 110,000 masks, as the Ansa news agency reported on Monday. It is an order from the Tuscany region. The material should be manufactured in a factory near Perugia by April 6. Other Italian companies are also focusing on the health sector.

Update of March 23, 5:02 p.m .: The number of deaths attributable to the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus increased in one day from around 320 to more than 3770 in Lombardy, which was particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The Bild.de reports in relation to insiders.

According to John Hopkins University, the total number of deaths in Italy is 5,476 (as of March 23, 5 p.m.).

Corona crisis in Italy: terrible pictures show doctors - report from Bergamo: "outbreak out of control"

Update of March 23, 12:15 p.m .: In the Corona crisis *, Italians * show their admiration for the brave and hard-working doctors and nurses in a creative and varied manner.

How hard their job is in the fight against the corona virus is now documented by heartbreaking photos from the hospitals - especially in Lombardy - that are shared on Twitter.

Some of Italian nurses & doctors after long hours of work in intensive care. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YAG9oVcgrq

On it you can see doctors whose faces seem to show abrasions and swellings due to the non-stop use through face masks and protective glasses.

The Italians are coming together in the crisis - and they are just as emotional in the comments to the tweets. With a tweet, France's head of state, Emmanuel Macron, also thanked for the support of some neighboring European countries such as Baden-Württemberg, which take patients from crisis regions in Alsace into their own clinics.

In the course of the exit restrictions in Bavaria, you can also read the wording of the general decree of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior here.

Update of March 23, 2020, 10:21 am: From Bergamo, one of the epicentres of the Corona crisis in Italy, a shocking report was published over the weekend, documenting the situation there. On the international website Catalyst.nejm.org , which serves as an exchange and information platform for medical professionals, clinic directors and other healthcare professionals, employees report on the dramatic conditions in a Bergamo hospital . "Our hospital is highly contaminated and we have long exceeded the threshold: 300 of our 900 beds are occupied by CoVid 19 patients," the report says.

Corona crisis in Italy: hospitals in Bergamo on the verge of collapse

In addition, 70 percent of the hospital's intensive care beds are reserved for critical CoVid 19 patients who have a real chance of survival. This is why patients who come to the intensive care unit sometimes have to wait for a sick bed for hours. " Elderly patients are not resuscitated, die alone without adequate palliative care, while the family is notified by phone, often from an exhausted and emotionally drained doctor who has had no direct contact with the patient," the hospital staff reports.

But the situation in the surrounding region is even worse. "Most hospitals are overcrowded and close to collapse, " the text says. Medicines, respirators, oxygen and personal protective equipment are not available . The health system also has difficulties in providing regular services such as pregnancy care or childbirth.

Corona crisis in Italy: There is probably no social distancing among prison inmates

Cemeteries are now overwhelmed , which will pose a new public health problem, fear the authors of the report. In hospitals, employees see themselves alone in the hallway while trying to maintain the functionality of the system . Outside the hospitals, the administration of communities is neglected, vaccination programs are only used on demand and the situation in prisons is explosive because there is no social distancing . "We have been in quarantine since March 10," the authors write in their report from Bergamo. "Unfortunately, the outside world doesn't seem to be aware that the Bergamo outbreak has gotten out of control ."

And it's not just in the Bergamo region that hospitals are on the brink of collapse. The hospital in the Heinsberg district of North Rhine-Westphalia has now also threatened to close. The Heinsberg district administrator has meanwhile sent a call for help to China.

Update of March 22, 11:20 p.m .: The Corona pandemic continues to hit Italy hard. All the most drastic measures against the further spread of the coronavirus are currently fizzling out. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte speaks of the worst crisis in the country since World War II.

In view of ever new record numbers among the dead and infected, Italy is therefore taking another extreme step: by April 3, all companies and factories in the third largest economy in the euro zone are to remain closed that are not essential to everyday life.

A total of 59 138 infected people were recorded by Sunday - and the trend is rising.

Corona crisis in Italy: hundreds die on Sunday too

Update of March 22, 9 p.m .: While there has been a curfew in Italy for a long time, which is strictly controlled by the police, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers of the German federal states have issued a ban on contact with citizens in the fight against the corona virus - for at least two weeks.

Update of March 22, 6.30 p.m .: The death toll in Italy due to Corona continues to rise.

As the civil defense announced on Sunday, another 651 people have succumbed to the novel corona virus within 24 hours. Almost 5500 people have already died in Italy , making it the second highest daily corona death rate in the EU country. On Saturday, the number of deaths per day reached 793, a new record.

The number of detected coronavirus infections in Italy rose by 5560 to 59,158 on Sunday, the agency said. This was an increase of a good ten percent compared to the previous day.

Update of March 22, 5.45 p.m .: There are deaths due to Corona in and around the Italian capital Rome .

As of Saturday, a total of 1,190 Corona cases were registered in the Lazio region, which also includes the city of Rome . Of these, 661 reportedly had to go to hospital, 70 in intensive care. 50 died of the consequences of the coronavirus infection , 54 sufferers are considered cured.

Corona crisis in Italy: fatal corona virus spread in a religious house

Update from March 22, 5:30 p.m .: Corona spread in a religious house in the greater Rome area is worse than initially feared. According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, 60 sisters in Grottaferrata at the Figlie di San Camillo Institute tested positive for the coronavirus .

Rome: A medical worker in a protective suit is waiting for a patient next to an ambulance.

© picture alliance / dpa / Cheng Tingting

How the serious epidemic came about is unclear, especially since many of the sisters had worked in clinics and therefore have medical knowledge.

Another infested religious house caused a stir in Rome . In the Roman branch of the Suore angeliche di San Paolo, 19 out of 21 women tested positive at the weekend.

Corona crisis in Italy: Czech Republic confiscates 100,000 face masks - targeting Italy

Update from March 22nd, 5:15 pm: Serious mistake: The Czech Republic wrongly confiscated certain protective masks for Italy - and only recognized the mishap afterwards.

The Czech authorities had confiscated more than 100,000 face masks intended for Italy , which was particularly affected by the corona virus . Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek admitted the mistake this Sunday. This was not done on purpose, said the social democrat of the agency CTK . We are looking for a way how the masks could still reach their destination in the beginning of next week.

First report on March 22: 793 people fell victim to the corona virus in Italy - in just one day. That is more than ever. By Saturday, 4825 people had died in the most affected country in the world, said civil protection in Rome.

Italian military trucks bring corona corpses from Lombardy to Ferrara.

© dpa / Massimo Paolone

Overall, the number of infected people rose to 53,578 - more than 4,800 more than the previous day. Lombardy with the areas of Milan and Bergamo is particularly affected.

546 people died there on Friday alone. A total of 3095 people from this region have fallen victim to the corona virus in only this region. More and more people are falling victim to Covid-19 in Great Britain. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made great accusations.

Corona situation in Italy comes to a head: almost 800 dead - experts speculate

It sounds dramatic and it is. The clinics are at the end of their capacity, the doctors at the end of their strength. The military has to help with burials. The question that everybody keeps asking themselves: Why is the number in Italy constantly increasing? And why so quickly compared to all other nations on earth. There could be several reasons:

• Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world - and most of the dead were older people with pre-existing conditions.
• Many grandparents live with their children and grandchildren in the house or are more involved in everyday life than, for example, in Germany. Therefore, infections are easier.
• Experts also assume that the number of unreported cases among infected people is significantly higher than stated, and many cases that are mild or asymptomatic are not recorded. (Information on symptoms can be found here) According to ARD research, there are only 8.4 intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants in Italy, while 33.9 beds are available for 100,000 people in Germany.
• The exponentially increasing number of sufferers in Italy makes it impossible to control the virus and guarantee treatment for all patients.
• More tests are being carried out in Germany, which is why more infections are discovered earlier. Experts also believe that the virus may have spread unnoticed in Italy for a long time, which would mean a high number of unreported cases. Virologist Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten says, for example: "Here in Germany we are at the forefront when it comes to diagnostics and detection."
• Above all, the many laboratories in Germany that support each other are led by Prof. Dr. Drosten as the main reason for the low death toll. In particular, the exchange among each other and the waiver of the exclusivity of tests or information may have given Germany a certain advantage. "That slowed down a lot in other countries," said Drosten.

Corona virus tragedy in Italy - Germany better equipped?

But he warns Germany: There are enough beds available and there are better trained specialists than in Italy, but the big but follows: "We still have far too little of this good intensive care medicine." The crisis has caught Italy in any case. And Germany must now also be careful before Italian conditions. In the meantime, Italy has announced that it will close all non-vital companies.

pm / mke / cia with material from dpa and AFP

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network

List of rubric lists: © dpa / Claudio Furlan