Julio Algañaraz
10/29/2020 18:01
Clarín.com
World
Updated 10/29/2020 18:01
After three announcements of insufficient measures, the epidemic is increasingly out of control in Italy and the government said that on November 9 it
may consider a quarantine
to contain the deadly advance of the coronavirus, but the decision could come too late.
This Thursday there were 26,831 infected and 217 deaths.
In total 38,122 dead since the beginning of the pandemic.
It is likely that next week the number of infected will reach between 30 and 35 thousand, with an alarming number of deaths and dangerous pressure on the number of hospitalized patients and patients in intensive care, which
threaten to saturate the hospital capacity
in the Italian regions most affected by Covid-19.
The avalanche also falls on doctors, nurses and the rest of the health personnel who fought without quarter in the first phase of the pandemic, with a high rate of sacrifices.
In the last few months, 5,032 of them have been infected.
Ten thousand doctors and nurses are missing, especially specialized ones
.
The press publishes photographs and videos of those in the front line, dressed as Martians to isolate themselves from the virus.
They are seen resting exhausted in the corridors due to the overwhelming shifts that they must perform, aggravated by the twenty or thirty daily patients who arrive for hospitalization, many times already with serious complications due to the attack of the coronavirus on the lungs.
Health workers, with the help of the military, take coronavirus tests in Caserta, Italy, this Thursday.
Photo: EFE
In the first phase of the pandemic, 30,513 were infected among hospital operators, of which a hundred died.
Almost 200 doctors have lost their lives to date
, including the so-called base or family who represent the heart of the health system because they are the ones who care for the population and those who risk the most life, because despite the promises of the Ministry of Health they are not supplied with the elements to prevent them from spreading.
Measures that are not enough
Clarín
stressed that the three packages of measures that were announced were not up to the ferocity of the pandemic in this second wave.
The main objective of the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is to prevent restrictions to favor isolation and popular immobility from having excessive backlash on sectors that are left without work or see their bars, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, pizzeria, gyms and swimming pools.
But the unexpected
uncontrolled spread of the virus
has created "critical moments" that made Prime Minister Conte acknowledge on Thursday that "the situation is serious."
Lombardy, the most prosperous and industrialized region, which was hit the hardest in the first phase, also suffers the sad primacy in the new wave.
The difference is that now it is not Bergamo and Brescia, the cities with their provinces that contribute a quota of thousands of victims, but the capital Milan itself and its surroundings, or the nearby Monza, where the famous Formula One racetrack is located.
A sign indicates where to wait to get tested for coronavirus in a hospital in Rome.
Photo: AFP
The case has an explanation: the number of people who work in Monza but live abroad and arrive by
trains and buses
.
It has been found that many have been infected in the crowds of peak hours.
In Lombardy on Wednesday there were 7,558 infected.
"They already call us the new Bergamo," lamented a municipal official after it was announced that the infected reached 1,362 in 24 hours.
Problems grow at the local San Gerardo hospital with 1,780 hospitalized due to the epidemic.
In Piedmont, 2,827 infected in one day, the region decided to request the urgent help of the Army with field hospitals and containers to house the less seriously ill.
In the southern region of Puglia, badly hit by the epidemic, it was decided to close primary and secondary schools.
Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte does not want a new quarantine to further hit the country's economy.
Photo: EFE
Hard quarantine?
The mayors of Milan and Naples met on Wednesday and said they did not object to both metropolitan areas (second and third in the country; Rome is the first) being declared in
rigid quarantine
.
But they demanded to be heard by the national government in defense of the inhabitants of both cities.
“Too much time has been wasted in the summer, when the pressure of the epidemic had decreased so much and it was possible to effectively prevent the critical points of the second wave that everyone knew was to come,” said Professor Massimo Galli, primary of the hospital Sacco from Milan, specialized in infectious diseases.
"Now we have the virus everywhere and we are going to a situation like that of France, which has just declared quarantine," he lamented.
Doctors with special protective equipment to protect themselves from Covid-19, in a hospital in Rome.
Photo: EFE
Galli especially criticized the lack of more incisive measures by the government during the summer to reorganize the transport system, which in cities continues to "produce" dangerous and fatal crowds of passengers at peak hours.
“We have converted almost the entire hospital to care for Covid-19 patients.
We have 300 internees and we have set up another 300 beds for new patients, ”Galli reported.
Another scientist, Agostino Miozzo, who chairs the Scientific Technical Committee that advises the government, was less pressing than his colleague Galli, saying: “We have two weeks to know if we have passed the compatible limit to control the epidemic or if we have to approve more measures radicals ”, that is, quarantine.
Both Galli and Miozzo estimated that if the rigid quarantine is to be reached, it can be limited to one month in force, in which the closure of a large part of the country's activities would be imposed in practice.
As of March 10, when the "lockdown" of the first phase began, most Italians were confined to their homes for a period of 72 days.
Schools and the vast majority of shops were closed.
Those who had to leave more than 800 meters from home had to present a certification to the
tens of thousands of police officers who
effectively
controlled
compliance with the quarantine.
In recent days there have been
continuous demonstrations
in Italian cities against the closure of bars, restaurants and other gastronomic businesses, which are obliged to close at 18, in addition to cinemas, theaters and show rooms.
The world of culture protested, but it was announced that two dozen musicians and singers of the choir of the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan are infected and all the members have been quarantined.
The protesters who demanded the reopening of their businesses, were joined by violent groups from the extreme right and soccer brave bars that committed attacks and attacks in several cities.
Groups from the extreme left, which the police identified as having an anarchist background, also participated in the episodes that caused 50 arrests and some minor injuries.
In Turin, the capital of Piedmont, the most violent events took place, with the attack on the central Via Roma on luxury stores such as Gucci and Apple, which were robbed.
Rome, correspondent
CB
