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Stuart Lau

The death toll in Italy from the Covid-19 pandemic reached a grim milestone on Thursday as its number of fatalities surpassed the official total in China.
Italian authorities announced 427 new deaths, pushing the total to 3,405, exceeding the total of 3,250 fatalities recorded across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Italy has a population of 60 million, or less than 5 per cent of mainland China’s 1.3 billion. But it also has the world’s second oldest citizenry, after Japan. Some 30 per cent of Italians were aged 60 or above in 2017, according to the United Nations.
Elderly people are more vulnerable to Covid-19, according to health experts.
Italy also has the world’s second-highest number of diagnosed cases, 41,035, after China. At least five doctors in Italy are among the dead.


More than 9,600 people have died around the world.
Spain’s health ministry said on Thursday that the death toll had soared by 209 to 767 fatalities from the previous day.
A total of 17,147 people have contracted the disease in Spain, a roughly 25 per cent increase over the previous day, according to the health ministry, with the figure expected to rise further as testing becomes more readily available. The death rate in Madrid was described by local authorities as “one case every 16 minutes”.
There were 13,716 cases in Spain on Wednesday.
Spanish King Felipe VI, in a rare televised address, told his citizens: “This virus will not defeat us. On the contrary. It will make us stronger as a society.”

Bergamo questa sera. Camion dell’esercito per trasportare bare. pic.twitter.com/YryHjVXaza
— Eugenio Iafrate (@IafrateEugenio) March 18, 2020

In China, where the crisis began, there was a sense of relief on Thursday as there were no new locally transmitted cases reported for the first time since the outbreak began.
As opposite turning points were marked in China and Europe, the worldwide total of infections exceeded 220,000. The new cases include Monaco’s reigning monarch, Prince Albert, and Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator.
Concerns are also growing that the surge in cases in Europe and North America could result in a second wave in Asia, amid reports of mass movements of travellers fleeing the current epicentres.
Australia and New Zealand became the latest countries to ban non-citizens from entry.
Italy says 99 per cent of infected people who died had other illnesses
In China, the National Health Commission said on Thursday that all 34 new infections reported the previous day had been imported cases.
It is also the first time Hubei province, where the crisis began, recorded no new cases either domestically or from abroad.
The number of new deaths in mainland China was down to single digits, with eight reported, bringing the total number of fatalities to 3,245.
Dramatic footage has been circulating on social media, showing military vehicles taking corpses out of the Italian city of Bergamo because cremation facilities were overloaded.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended a nationwide lockdown that is weighing on the economy, saying: “We managed to avoid the collapse of the system and the measures are working.”
The government is considering tightening restrictions amid concern that many Italians are not respecting rules that confine them to their homes except for work, health or emergency reasons.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Grim toll as Italy’s Covid-19 deaths surpass those of China

Italian military trucks and soldiers are seen by Bergamo's cemetery after the army was deployed to move coffins from the cemetery to neighbouring provinces. Photo: Sergio Agazzi/Fotogramma via Reuters

(200319) -- MONACO, March 19, 2020 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on March 15, 2019 shows Prince Albert II of Monaco receiving an interview in Monaco. Prince of Monaco, Albert II, has tested positive for the coronavirus, while his health is in good condition, princely palace said on Thursday. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

Coronavirus: border closures hamper Italy’s fight against Covid-19

With Europe’s internal borders closing, there are concerns deliveries of medical supplies could be disrupted in Italy. Photo: EPA-EFE

A picture of Maria Capobianchi. Photo:  Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences

epa08301955 A couple, wearing protective face masks, kisses in the Borgo Pio district in Rome, Italy, 17 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/ANGELO CARCONI

Coronavirus: Italy says 99 per cent of people who died had other illnesses

A doctor tours an intensive care unit for Covid-19 cases at a hospital in Rome. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - A nurse (L) is being monitored for body temperature on March 18, 2020 at the new COVID 3 level intensive care unit for coronavirus COVID-19 cases at the Casal Palocco hospital near Rome, that is to open later March 18. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

In this March 16, 2020, photo, doctors work in the intensive care unit of the Brescia hospital, Italy. Hospitals in northern Italy are struggling to make room for the onslaught of coronavirus patients. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Coronavirus: Italy closes shops and restaurants as deaths jump to 827

A woman wearing a face mask walks by the almost deserted Ducal Palace square in Genoa, Italy, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Italian authorities announce 427 new deaths, pushing the total to 3,405 and exceeding mainland China’s 3,242
In Madrid, death rate is described by health authorities as ‘one case every 16 minutes’



Italian authorities announce 427 new deaths, pushing the total to 3,405 and exceeding mainland China’s 3,242.
