COVID-19: update of the Italian situation

Abstract

On the March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak as a pandemic. The first cases in Italy were reported on January 30, 2020, and quickly the number of cases escalated. On March 20, 2020, according to the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) and National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the peak of COVID-19 cases reported in Italy reached the highest number, surpassing those in China. The Italian government endorsed progressively restrictive measures initially at the local level, and finally, at the national level with a lockdown of the entire Italian territory up to 3 May 2020. The complete Italian territory closing slowed down the contagion. This review retraces the main numbers of the pandemic in Italy. Although in decline, the new reported cases remain high in the northern regions. Since drugs or vaccines are still not available, the described framework highlights the importance of the containment measures to be able to quickly identify all the potential transmission hotspots and keep control subsequent epidemic waves of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 new cases and deaths; Geographical distribution; Lockdown; SARS-CoV-2.

Fig. 1

The geographical distribution of COVID-19 cases and associated deaths in Italy during the pre- and post-lockdown period of the epidemic. a During the pre-lockdown period, the highest geographical SARS-CoV-2 spread was reported in the northern regions of Italy and the lowest in the southern regions and in the main Islands. The region of Lombardy has the highest number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 and appears to be the epicenter of the Italian outbreak. b In the post-lockdown period, the heterogeneity in the geographical spread of the epidemic was confirmed and the SARS-CoV-2 circulation persisted high in the Northern regions and held in the Southern Regions and in the Islands. c On 30 March, the total number of deaths, at a national level, was 11,591 of which 6818 only in Lombardy, 1538 in Emilia Romagna, 749 in Piedmont, 417 in Marche region, 413 in Veneto, 397 in Liguria, 231 in Tuscany, 221 in Trentino Alto Adige (Trento and Bolzano), 150 in Lazio, 125 in Campania, 107 in Friuli Venezia Giulia, 102 in Abruzzo, 91 in Apulia, 76 in Sicily and less than 50 in the other five regions. d On June 3, the total number of deaths was 33,601 of which 16,172 in Lombardy. Three thousand eight hundred ninety-eight (3898) deaths were reported in Piedmont, 4147 in Emilia Romagna, 1921 in Veneto, 1473 in Marche region, 1055 in Tuscany, 987 in Lazio, 754 in Trentino Alto Adige (Trento and Bolzano), 747 in Liguria, 511 in Apulia, 415 in Campania, 414 in Abruzzo, 336 in Friuli Venezia Giulia, 275 in Sicily, 143 cases in Calabria, 131 cases in Sardinia, 97 cases in Val d’Aosta, 76 cases in Umbria, 27 cases in Molise and, finally, by 22 cases in Basilicata