(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 22 - Italy's COVID trend is exponential because "we did not do what we should have two weeks ago," Cattolica University lecturer and health ministry advisor Walter Ricciardi said Thursday.
Today "in metropolitan areas there is a rate of transmission of 2.3, which means that the doubling of cases can occur in a day, as we are already starting to see in Lombardy," said Ricciardi, an advisor to Health Minister Roberto Speranza.
"Two weeks ago I said that we are travelling on a razor's edge and I had foreseen 16,000 cases before Christmas.
"But we had them yesterday". (ANSA).
COVID trend exponential because action not taken - expert
Predicted 16,000 cases by Xmas, we had them yesterday -Ricciardi