ISTAT said Wednesday that life expectancy in Italy fell by almost a year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national statistics agency said life expectancy at birth was 82.3 years in 2020, down from 83.2 in 2019.
"COVID completely wiped out the life-expectancy gains made in a decade in the north and partially wiped them out in other parts of the country," said ISTAT's BES report on the nation's well being and its level of equality and sustainability.
"This is a step backwards that will take a long time to be fully recouped".
ISTAT President Gian Carlo Blangiardo said that "the indicators have registered a particularly violent impact on some of the areas of progress on health of the last 10 years, which were wiped out in just one year".
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