Health Authorities From Italy Says 99% OF COVID-19 Fatalities Had Other Illnesses
COVID-19 IN ITALY – As the number of cases finally appear to dwindle in China, things are getting worse in Italy.
Recently, health authorities reported 475 new fatalities due to COVID-19. This is the highest recorded number of deaths to be recorded in a single day by a country.
Even with the entire nation under lockdown, Italy has been struggling in handling the virus. As such, China had extended their help by sending medical experts and tons of medical supplies.
However, according to a report from SCMP, the patients who died from COVID-19 all had pre-existing illnesses. More than 99% of Italy’s fatalities were those suffering from previous medical conditions.
In the past week, Italy had seen a 150% increase in the number of deaths. With this, health authorities have been gathering data to provide clues to help fight the virus.
The new study helped shed light as to why Italy’s fatality rate of 8% of the total infected population, is higher than in most countries.
According to the research, about half of the victims suffered from at least three prior illnesses. Likewise, a fourth of the victims had either 1 or 2 prior conditions.
Moreover, the average age of those who died from COVID-19 was 79.5. Meanwhile, merely 17 people under 50 died from the virus. Additionally, all patients under 40 who died were male and had serious existing medical conditions.
However, several experts believe that Italy had been grossly underestimating the total number of infected. As per the article, the GIMBE Foundation says about 100,000 Italians have contracted the virus.
This brings the nation’s fatality rate closer to the global average of about 2 percent.
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