In Italy, Covid-19 has reduced life expectancy by 1.2 years in 2020. The National Statistical Institute (Istat) announces on Monday that it has even decreased by more than four years in some of the most severely tested.
"In 2020, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the sharp increase in the risk of mortality that resulted from it abruptly halted the growth in life expectancy at birth which characterized the trend until 2019 resulting in, for example, compared to the previous year, a contraction of 1.2 years, ”Istat said in a statement.
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In 2020, life expectancy at birth was 82 years: 79.7 years for men and 84.4 years for women, against 81 years and 85.3 years in 2019.
The differences are significant depending on the region.
In the north, in the provinces of Bergamo and Cremona, the most bereaved in Italy, men have lost 4.3 and 4.5 years of life expectancy, women 3.2 and 2.9 years.
Conversely, it is in the provinces of Foggia (south), and Enna, in Sicily (-1.7 and -1.5 years respectively) that life expectancy has fallen the least.
The province of Siena (center) is the only one that has not recorded a change from one year to the next (83.7 years).
The first European country massively affected
The pandemic killed 129,515 in Italy, half of which in the northern regions (Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Umbria and Veneto) while only 36% of the 60 million Italians reside there.
Italy was the first European country affected by the pandemic in February 2020. The virus quickly spread to Lombardy, the economic heart of the country which for a time became the epicenter of the global pandemic.
More than 79 million doses of vaccines have been administered and 71.65% of those over 12 are fully vaccinated, according to the latest figures released on Monday by the government.