Italy is on its way to recovering from the consequences of COVID-19 infection, said the health officials on Friday. The once most-infected EU country has seen a record-high number of recoveries now.
In Italy, the number of people currently being treated for COVID-19 rose by only a few hundred for the first time since the outbreak began. As the health ministry confirmed on Friday, a new low number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospital.
The civil protection service’s statistics also showed the number of those receiving hospital care or recovering at home under medical supervision rising by 355 to 106,962 on April 17.
However, the figure outside the outbreak’s Italian epicentre in Milan’s northern region of Lombardy went up by just 11 cases. It went up by 344 in Lombardy itself. The most alarming fact was the number had been rising by at least 1,000 a day nationally for over a month.
“In absolute terms, we have had had the highest number of recoveries since the start of the crisis,” civil protection service boss Angelo Berrelli told the press.
Italy is going to relax some restrictions
According to the latest data, Italy’s official death toll still rose by another 575 fatalities Friday to 22,745 – the second-highest toll after the US. According to civil protection service, it is suspending daily briefings and moving to a twice-a-week format. Although, new figures will still be issued daily.
Prime minister said that the government is still debating how and when it should start lifting the national lockdown, which has left millions furloughed and unemployed. Italy faces the strangest ever times when the current restrictions are due to expire on May 3rd.
Meantime, Conte’s Cabinet is planning to partially lift stay-at-home orders in regions where new cases have sharply dropped. The top health official hinted Friday that restricted may be eased in regions south of Rome, which are less affected by the outbreak.
“We have prevented the spread of contagion in southern regions. This is now a fact supported by [Friday’s] figures,” Locatelli said.
Previously undisclosed figures from its public health institute revealed that nearly 17,000 medics have been infected with the virus since Italy’s first COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21.
Despite the scaling down the number of infections, several Italian doctors have expressed fears that infected health care workers may have been unwittingly spreading the disease to their patients in the early weeks of the outbreak. Media reports on Friday said that at least 125 doctors and 34 nurses have also died of the disease.
In fact, the medical staff in Italy believe that Italy’s real number of deaths could be double the official figure in some of the worst-hit provinces around Milan.
