The president of the Higher Health
Institute, Silvio Brusaferro, told a press conference on the
coronavirus emergency Friday that "the curve clearly shows us a
situation of decrease and that is a positive sign, but it must
not make us let our guard down".
Brusaferro added that "the numbers, while contained, are
falling" in southern Italy too, amid a nationwide lockdown to
stop the spread of COVID-19.
In Lombardy, the worst-hit region, Brusaferro said some 1,822
elderly people had died in the region's care homes.
He said the death rate in Italy's care homes had "risen a
lot".
In one home alone, Milan's Pio Albergo Trivulzio, over 110
people have died.
Brusaferro said the average age of death in the Italian
epidemic was 80, and the majority of people had died with
multiple pre-existing pathologies.
The ISS chief warned against people gathering over the Easter
holidays, reiterating "the curves are a positive sign but we can
only keep them falling if we keep up containment measures".
Higher Health Council (CSS) President Franco Locatelli echoed
that.
"We have had a positive indicator of a fall in the patients
hospitalized and in intensive care in a consolidated way for
five days now but we must not minimally loosen the measures
implemented, which have permitted that in some regions what
happened in Lombardy did not happen there too," he said.
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