COVID-19: Italy Surpasses 100,000 Death Toll

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has reiterated his government determination to speed up the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme as the country’s death toll eclipsed 100,000 on Monday.

Italy is the seventh country in the world to reach 100,000 deaths, following the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Russia and Britain.

The health ministry said 318 people had died of the disease in the last 24 hours bringing the total tally since the epidemic hit the country 13 months ago to 100,103, the highest in mainland Europe.

Some 13,902 new cases were logged on Monday compared to 20,765 on Sunday. Fewer tests are normally carried out at the weekend, which means case numbers are often low on Mondays. There were 687 new hospital admissions over the past 24 hours, up from 443 on Sunday. The total number of intensive care patients increased by 95, to 2,700.

Infections rose 23 per cent last week by comparison with the week before and health officials have warned that the country faces a fresh surge of cases as a more contagious variant of the disease gains ground.

In a video message Monday afternoon, Draghi said: “The pandemic is not yet defeated but we can glimpse, with the acceleration of the vaccine plan, an exit path which is not distant.”

He acknowledged that the situation was deteriorating, but said his government was going to “significantly step up” its vaccination campaign and predicted that the end to the crisis was in sight.

As the country plans to announce further measures in the next few days, President Draghi said passing the “terrible threshold” of 100,000 deaths is something “we would never have imagined a year ago”.

He said the vaccination programme will be “decisively strengthened” in the next few days, with the jab going first to the most fragile people and categories at risk.

On Monday, Italy also approved the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over the age of 65 with the Health Minister, Roberto Speranza confirming that the government aims to vaccinate all Italians by the summer.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021 marks a year since Italy became the first European country to impose a tough lockdown that lasted for about two months.

Currently, the Italians are using a coloured, tiered-system of various restrictions across its 20 regions depending on the severity of the virus’s spread and capacity of hospitals to deal with it. – With Guardian reports