Italian Governor Warns: Soon Hospitals Won’t ‘Be Able to Help’ Coronavirus Patients

A medical worker wearing a face mask brings a patient in an ambulance arriving at the new
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The Italian governor of Lombardy is warning citizens to “stay home” because soon hospitals “will no longer be able to help those who get sick” with the Chinese coronavirus.

The Lombardy governor is warning citizens that if they do not stay home, the government will get more aggressive, as victims of the virus that originated in Wuhan, China, are not reducing in Italy, which means that hospitals will soon be “no longer able to help” new coronavirus patients, according to La Repubblica.

“Unfortunately, the numbers of the infection are not decreasing, they continue to be high. In a short time, we will no longer be able to help those who get sick,” said Attilio Fontana, the governor of Lombardy — Italy’s region worst-infected by the Chinese virus.

“Friends, I am saying this in a polite way, but in a while, we will have to change our tone because if you don’t understand this with good tones, then we have to be a little more aggressive in making it understood,” the governor added.

According to the mayor of Bergamo — a city in Lombardy, just northeast of Milan — the coronavirus crisis has already overwhelmed hospitals to the point where patients “are left to die” — and not only that, but the city’s crematory is also overcrowded with the bodies of those who succumbed to the Wuhan virus.

The governor of Lombardy says that the Italian government asking its citizens to stay in their homes to stop the coronavirus is not asking for a major sacrifice, “but to save some human lives.”

“Every time you leave home, it’s a risk for you and for others,” said Fontana. “For now, we ask you with the usual tranquility, but if you continue, we will ask the government to take strong measures.”

The region’s government knows how many of its citizens are breaking quarantine rules, as it has asked telephone companies to monitor the movements of citizens who travel beyond 300 yards, reports La Repubblica.

Data received from telephone companies revealed that roughly 40 percent of Lombards are still traveling beyond 300 yards, despite the Italian government’s new quarantine rules prohibiting citizens from leaving their homes.

“There is an application that the big telephone companies have made available for us to see and aggregate in a totally anonymous way the flow of people, such as if they moved inside or outside the region,” said Lombardy Welfare Councilor Giulio Gallera.

“But we are not Big Brother,” he added.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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