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More than 2,600 medical workers have been infected with coronavirus in Italy - 8.3 per cent of the country's total cases, it emerged last night, as the government extended lockdown measures beyond the start of April today.
The figures were released by a health foundation which said the 'huge number' of infected medics showed that procedures and protection equipment for doctors were 'still inadequate'.
The problem is far worse than in China, because '8.3 per cent is more than double the percentage of the Chinese cohort', the Gimbe foundation's president Nino Cartabellotta told Italian media.
According to the figures, which are drawn from official data, the number of infected medics has risen by more than 1,500 just in the last eight days.
The figure of 2,629 infected medical professionals in Italy also means that nearly 0.3 per cent of Italy's health workers have caught the disease - taking them out of service when they are desperately needed.
'No more talking: adequately protect those who must protect us,' Cartabellotta urged last night.
It came as Italy recorded a record 4,207 infections and 475 new deaths from the virus yesterday, squashing hopes that the unprecedented national lockdown was beginning to slow the spread of the pathogen.
Prime minister Giuseppe Conte has now warned that quarantine measures 'must be extended beyond their original deadline'. Some had initially been due to expire as early as next Wednesday.
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The previous record high of 368 deaths was also recorded in Italy, on Sunday.
The new surge in cases, which takes the total to 35,713, puts an end to four days of stalling infection numbers and dampens hopes that the quarantine is working.
Italians have been ordered to stay indoors, with schools and universities shut, shops closed except for grocery stores and pharmacies, and heavy restrictions on travel.
However, officials warn there is a lag time between the lockdown being imposed and its effects becoming noticeable in the figures.
The main thing is, do not give up,' Italian National Institute of Health chief Silvio Brusaferro said in a nationally televised press conference.
'It will take a few days before we see the benefits' of containment measures, said Brusaferro.
'We must maintain these measures to see their effect, and above all to protect the most vulnerable.'
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| Hospital workers prepare coffins at the Ponte San Pietro hospital in Bergamo on Tuesday, in the province of Lombardy which has been the worst-affected region of Italy |
But prime minister Giuseppe Conte said today that the lockdown will be extended beyond the April 3 deadline.
'The measures we have taken... must be extended beyond their original deadline,' Conte told Thursday's edition of the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
A top government minister hinted yesterday that the school closure could be extended well into next month, if not longer.
Italy's National Research Council (CNR) expects a 'significant reduction' in the growth rate of new infections in the Lombardy region around Rome by next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The northern region of around 10million people has been at the epicentre of the crisis since the start, reporting two thirds of all the deaths in the nation of 60 million.
2,629 medics are infected with coronavirus in Italy: Country will extend lockdown into April as figures show doctors and nurses make up 8.3% of cases following highest daily death rate yet
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| This graph shows the number of daily coronavirus cases in Italy, which jumped to a record 4,207 yesterday, squashing hopes that the lockdown was beginning to stall infections |
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The figures were released by a health foundation which said the 'huge number' of infected medics showed that procedures and protection equipment for doctors were 'still inadequate'.
The problem is far worse than in China, because '8.3 per cent is more than double the percentage of the Chinese cohort', the Gimbe foundation's president Nino Cartabellotta told Italian media.
According to the figures, which are drawn from official data, the number of infected medics has risen by more than 1,500 just in the last eight days.
The figure of 2,629 infected medical professionals in Italy also means that nearly 0.3 per cent of Italy's health workers have caught the disease - taking them out of service when they are desperately needed.
'No more talking: adequately protect those who must protect us,' Cartabellotta urged last night.
It came as Italy recorded a record 4,207 infections and 475 new deaths from the virus yesterday, squashing hopes that the unprecedented national lockdown was beginning to slow the spread of the pathogen.
Prime minister Giuseppe Conte has now warned that quarantine measures 'must be extended beyond their original deadline'. Some had initially been due to expire as early as next Wednesday.
Italy's 475 new deaths are the largest number that any country, even China, has reported in a single day since the outbreak began late last year.
The previous record high of 368 deaths was also recorded in Italy, on Sunday.
The new surge in cases, which takes the total to 35,713, puts an end to four days of stalling infection numbers and dampens hopes that the quarantine is working.
Italians have been ordered to stay indoors, with schools and universities shut, shops closed except for grocery stores and pharmacies, and heavy restrictions on travel.
However, officials warn there is a lag time between the lockdown being imposed and its effects becoming noticeable in the figures.
The main thing is, do not give up,' Italian National Institute of Health chief Silvio Brusaferro said in a nationally televised press conference.
'It will take a few days before we see the benefits' of containment measures, said Brusaferro.
'We must maintain these measures to see their effect, and above all to protect the most vulnerable.'
Imposed nationally on March 12, the shutdown of most Italian businesses and a ban on public gatherings were initially due to expire on March 25 with schools shut until April 3.
But prime minister Giuseppe Conte said today that the lockdown will be extended beyond the April 3 deadline.
'The measures we have taken... must be extended beyond their original deadline,' Conte told Thursday's edition of the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
A top government minister hinted yesterday that the school closure could be extended well into next month, if not longer.
Italy's National Research Council (CNR) expects a 'significant reduction' in the growth rate of new infections in the Lombardy region around Rome by next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The northern region of around 10million people has been at the epicentre of the crisis since the start, reporting two thirds of all the deaths in the nation of 60 million.
It has been under lockdown since March 8.
Noting that infections are starting to rise in the south, where many Italians moved after the start of containment measures in the north, the CNR predicts that figures across Italy will only stabilise between March 25 and April 15.
There have been fears that the health system of the poorer south would be entirely unable to cope with an outbreak on the scale which the north has suffered.
The rates within Italy itself remained stable yesterday, with two-thirds of the deaths - 1,959 in all - reported in the northern Lombardy region around Milan, the Italian financial and fashion capital.
The neighbouring Emilia-Romagna region of Bologna has suffered a total of 458 fatalities, and Turin's Piedmont region has had 154 deaths.
Rome's Lazio region has a toll of 32 deaths and 724 infections.
It has been under lockdown since March 8.
Noting that infections are starting to rise in the south, where many Italians moved after the start of containment measures in the north, the CNR predicts that figures across Italy will only stabilise between March 25 and April 15.
There have been fears that the health system of the poorer south would be entirely unable to cope with an outbreak on the scale which the north has suffered.
The rates within Italy itself remained stable yesterday, with two-thirds of the deaths - 1,959 in all - reported in the northern Lombardy region around Milan, the Italian financial and fashion capital.
The neighbouring Emilia-Romagna region of Bologna has suffered a total of 458 fatalities, and Turin's Piedmont region has had 154 deaths.
Rome's Lazio region has a toll of 32 deaths and 724 infections.
Source:DailyMail
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