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Agence France-Presse

A city in Italy is asking its highest-risk residents to undergo drive-through coronavirus testing, as cases continue surging in the worst-affected country in Europe.
“In South Korea, people volunteered to be tested, but here it works differently: those who need to be tested are called in,” said the pop-up centre’s nursing coordinator Calogero Volante. “Only those who are summoned can come.”
It is a trial run in a country desperately looking for some way out of its worst crisis since World War II.
The northwestern city of Alessandria finds itself near the heart of an Italian outbreak that has officially infected at least 110,000 and killed more than 13,000 people.


Its Piedmont region has recorded 886 deaths in the past month. Many think the real toll could be at least twice as high.
Italy entered a national lockdown three weeks ago that will run at least until mid-April in an effort to stop the spread.
But a range of people – from rubbish collectors and shop workers to police officers and nursing home staff – still risk their lives every day by showing up for work.
Italy would like to see all of them tested, for their own safety and the safety of those they meet.

But the overstretched country’s resources are already limited. Officials in Alessandria figured that what worked in the United States and South Korea might work in Italy as well.
Health workers in white protective suits and goggles walk up to drivers and gently insert a swab high up a person’s nose.
Why Europe’s hospitals – among world’s best – are struggling with virus
The procedure is delicate and takes a few moments. Some drivers initially recoil at the shock.
“Don’t move and everything will be fine,” one of the nurses says to a slightly alarmed-looking driver. “You will have the results in a few days.”


Italy’s infection rates are slowing and hopes are rising high that the Mediterranean country has already survived the worst.
But officials are now thinking about how they are ever going to reopen the country without sparking a new wave of infections.
Comprehensive testing is almost certainly going to be part of any get back to work scheme.
The drive-through project in Alessandria might eventually be reproduced across Italy – if it works.
“Here, we are able to test up to 60 people a day, testing every five minutes,” said Volante. “It frees up human resources – and above all, the protective equipment.”


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Italian city summons at-risk citizens for drive-through virus testing, taking leaf from US, South Korea

A health worker takes a sample from a woman at a drive-through test station in Italy. Photo: ZUMA Press/dpa

epa08304368 A health worker wearing overalls and protective masks perform a swab test of a motorist seated in his car in Bologna, Italy, 18 March 2020. One swab every five minutes, is the rhythm guaranteed by the new way of performing the coronavirus positivity test, experimented in Bologna on 18 March at San Lazzaro di Savena. It is called 'drive-thru buffer' and takes over what has already been successfully tested in South Korea and Australia. It provides the test directly on board on one's car, in a safer and faster way. EPA-EFE/GIORGIO BENVENUTI

Life under Italy’s lockdown: the hard lessons other countries must learn

A man wearing a face mask passes in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy on March 7. Photo: AFP

epa08294147 A man carries out sanitization operations at a neighborhood during the emergency lockdown due to the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak in Rome, Italy, 14 March 2020. EPA-EFE/ANGELO CARCONI

TOPSHOT - A homeless man sits in a deserted Via del Corso main street in central Rome on March 24, 2020 during the country's lockdown aimed at stopping the spread of the COVID-19 (new coronavirus) pandemic. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP)

A medical worker wearing a face make and protection gear tends to a patient inside the new coronavirus intensive care unit of the Brescia Poliambulanza hospital, Lombardy, on March 17, 2020. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)[05APRIL2020 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]CREDIT: AFP

epa08298978 A man walks with his groceries beside a mural painting that portrays a person wearing a gas mask, Milan, Italy, 16 March 2020. Italy is under lockdown in an attempt to prevent the spread of the pandemic Coronavirus. Several European countries have closed borders, schools as well as public facilities, and have cancelled most major sports and entertainment events in order to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus causing the Covid-19 disease. EPA-EFE/ANDREA FASANI

A picture taken on March 23, 2020 shows a view of the Colosseum monument along a deserted Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome, during the country's lockdown aimed at stopping the spread of the COVID-19 (new coronavirus) pandemic. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)[05APRIL2020 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]CREDIT: AFP

Medical workers in overalls stretch a patient under intensive care into the newly built Columbus Covid 2 temporary hospital to fight the new coronavirus infection, on March 16, 2020 at the Gemelli hospital in Rome. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)[05APRIL2020 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]CREDIT: AFP

A man wearing a face mask passes in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, on March 7. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: why Prato, home to Italy’s biggest single Chinese community, is remarkably unscathed

Businessman Luca Zhou, 56, wears a face mask on the streets of Prato, home to the biggest ethnic Chinese community in Italy. Photo: Reuters

Businessman Luca Zhou, 56, on the streets of Prato, home to the biggest ethnic Chinese community, in Italy. Photo: Reuters

Why Europe’s hospitals – among the best in the world – are struggling with coronavirus

A health care worker and a patient at a newly set up intensive care unit for the treatment of Covid-19 in a hospital in Brescia, Italy, on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Coronavirus: Italy’s dead overwhelm morgues as toll tops 8,000

Some 35 coffins are stored in a warehouse in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Lombardy, on Thursday, before being transported elsewhere to be cremated. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: Italy’s slowing infection rate boosts case for lockdowns

Porta Nuova park closed after the banning for outdoor sports activities and the use of children's areas due to the Coronavirus emergency in Milan. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa08322285 Italian Carabinieri check on vehicles at a road block in Fondi, near Rome, a farm town which has the largest wholesale produce market serving Rome and Naples, and has been put under even more stringent lockdown than the rest of the country due to a cluster of COVID-19 cases in Fondi, Italy, 25 March 2020.  EPA-EFE/GIUSEPPE LAMI

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The city of Alessandria finds itself near the heart of an Italian outbreak that has officially infected 110,000 and killed more than 13,000 people
The drive-through project in the northwestern city might eventually be reproduced across Italy – if it works



The northwestern city of Alessandria finds itself near the heart of an Italian outbreak that has officially infected over 110,000 and killed more than 13,000.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Italy

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