In the last 24 hours, 250 people have died in Italy due to the coronavirus, setting a record for the highest death toll the nation has seen in one day from the virus.
A total of 17,660 people have been confirmed to be infected with the Chinese coronavirus in Italy as of Friday, which brings the nation’s confirmed cases from 15,113 on Thursday to 17,660 on Friday.
Newly released data from Italy’s head of Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli reveals that the nation’s death toll has been brought from 1,016 on Thursday, to 1,266 on Friday — the highest daily death toll Italy has seen yet.
“The coronavirus is a beast that has invaded us and will keep us company for a short time,” said Massimo Galli, an infectious disease specialist at the Sacco hospital in Milan, according to La Repubblica.
“Everyone’s mobilization is essential for this period to be shortened,” he added.
When it comes to understanding the effects of the restrictive quarantine measures taken by the Italian government, Galli says, “I would say two weeks, optimistically.”
Meanwhile, the Spallanzani Institute of Rome says it is “taking steps to increase the number of beds, in particular intensive care beds, to accommodate as many patients as possible” with coronavirus, reports La Repubblica.
As Italy’s death toll surges amid the country’s national health service scrambling to come up with enough ventilators and ICU beds for patients, doctors working in Italy’s overcrowded hospitals say they have been forced to ration services for older, sicker patients in order to prioritize younger patients who are more likely to be saved from the Wuhan virus.
“If someone between 80 and 95 has serious breathing difficulties, you probably don’t proceed,” said Christian Salaroli, anesthetist at a hospital in Bergamo, just northeast of Milan in Italy’s Lombardy region — the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.