(ANSA) - PERUGIA, 20 FEB - "The phone call announcing the first coronavirus positive patient in Codogno came to me on the step of a train I was about to get on to go home but which I obviously no longer took. It was 20.50 of 20 February 2020. I will never forget it ": Giuseppe De Filippis was at the time medical director of the Sacco hospital in Milan and retraces the moments in which patient zero was identified.
He does it with ANSA in Perugia where he is now acting general manager of the hospital.
"The Sacco laboratory - recalls De Filippis - was in charge of analyzing all the swabs together with that of Pavia. That evening they knew that there was a particularly critical patient and before taking the train, from the step, I phoned the laboratory to ask how the situation was. They told me: 'we have the first positive case'. At that point I obviously went back, I got in touch with the managers of the Lombardy Region and from there the whole organizational machine started ".
The then director of the Sacco recalls that his job was to "send ambulances and doctors to Codogno".
"That night - he adds - I coordinated the transfer of Mattia and many patients to the Sacco and to the other hospitals".
"I cried when the vaccine arrived - says De Filippis - and still today after two years the tears come if we think about how much we have all fought, how much our families have suffered for the work we do. However, there were also aspects positive, such as solidarity between healthcare professionals and citizens, and all pharmaceutical companies have worked on a common goal, to find a solution, it was the first time. So let's look on the bright side and learn from this. We must value and believe in science, which is the only salvation. It would be a mistake - concludes De Filippis - to disperse all this now ".
(HANDLE).