Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

Italy records highest number of daily coronavirus cases since May

Italy on Wednesday logged the sharpest rise in coronavirus cases since late May, the health ministry said.

Published: 19 August 2020 18:49 CEST
Italy records highest number of daily coronavirus cases since May
Passengers queue to be screened for Covid-19 at a testing station set up at Rome's Fiumicino airport. Photo: AFP
Within one day, Italian health authorities reported 642 new coronavirus infections. 
 
The last time a higher number was registered was May 23rd, with 669 new infections. The peak of new daily recorded infections was in late March, with more than 6,500.
 
The number of swabs taken rose by almost 20,000 on Tuesday, to 71,000 in a day, the ministry said.
 
The regions which recorded the biggest rises were Lombardy (+91) and Emilia Romagna (+76).
 
The total number of Italian cases recorded since the start of the pandemic is now 255,278.
 
With seven more fatalities recorded on Tuesday, the death toll now stands at 35,412.
 
Over the weekend, Italian authorities ordered the closure of nightclubs and tightened mask-wearing rules after the number of new cases detected in the country rose from 200-300 to 600 within one week.
 
Many of Italy's new cases have been attributed to holidaymakers – often Italians returning from abroad, health authorities said.
 
 

 
Italy is the second-hardest hit country in Europe after the UK in terms of deaths from Covid-19, and was the first country outside of China to suffer an outbreak of Covid-19. However, Italy is generally viewed as having managed the crisis relatively well, with infection rates dropping following a strict and lengthy lockdown.
 
Italian government ministers and health experts have repeatedly insisted over the past week that, though cases have been rising again, outbreaks can be kept under control.
 
Authorities are urging people to continue to take basic precautions – wearing masks in public places, frequent hand-washing, and maintaining a distance from others.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

HEALTH

Which are Italy’s best hospitals and where are they?

Italy’s healthcare system is said to be among the best in the world, but stark regional differences persist. Here’s where you’ll find the country’s most highly-rated hospitals.

Published: 3 March 2023 15:05 CET
Updated: 14 March 2023 09:51 CET
Which are Italy’s best hospitals and where are they?

The average standard of healthcare in Italy is fairly high: the country has been ranked among the nations with the best healthcare systems in the world in surveys published by the World Health Organisation, Bloomberg and Statista.

But not all of Italy’s hospitals – or regional healthcare systems – are rated equally. A new World’s Best Hospitals ranking from Newsweek and global data firm Statista has revealed which of Italy’s hospitals are seen as the best.

The study ranked Rome’s Policlinico Gemelli as the best hospital in the country for the third year in a row, followed by Ospedale Niguarda and Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan.

The top five was completed by Policlinico Sant’Orsola in Bologna and the Istituto Humanitas in Rozzano, just south of Milan.

Spots from six to ten are occupied by: Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia, Azienda Ospedaliera in Padua, Ospedale Borgo Trento in Verona, Ospedale Papa Giovanni II in Bergamo and Turin’s Presidio Ospedaliero Molinette.

READ ALSO: Five essential facts about Italy’s public healthcare system

But aside from Rome’s Policlinico Gemelli, no hospital from the centre or south of the country figured in the top ten, with the first ‘non-northern’ hospital – Florence’s Ospedale Careggi – ranking 13th.

In fact, only three southern hospitals made it into the nation’s top 50, with the first one – Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo, Puglia – coming in 33rd.

These results seem to once again confirm the stark imbalances in the quality of medical services offered across the country, with central and southern regions continuing to perform poorly compared to their northern counterparts. 

You can read more about the issue and its causes HERE. 

Shifting from a national outlook to an international one, Italian hospitals didn’t fare quite as well as could be hoped.

The top five Italian hospitals all figured among the best 100 hospitals in the world, though only Rome’s Policlinico Gemelli made it into the top 50 (it came in 38th, to be exact).

However, Italy still had a total of 13 hospitals included in the world’s top 250 list, which made it the third most-represented European country in the ranking after Germany (25) and France (16).

Statista assessed the performance of over 2,300 hospitals around the world, basing its ranking upon a combination of the following four data sources: the opinion of over 80,000 healthcare professionals, patient experience surveys following hospitalisation, publicly available hospital quality metrics, and patient perception questionnaires. 

SHOW COMMENTS