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. 2021 Feb 19:8:609440.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.609440. eCollection 2021.

Bergamo and Covid-19: How the Dark Can Turn to Light

Norberto Perico  1 , Stefano Fagiuoli  2 , Fabiano Di Marco  3 , Andrea Laghi  4 , Roberto Cosentini  5 , Marco Rizzi  6 , Andrea Gianatti  7 , Alessandro Rambaldi  8   9 , Piero Ruggenenti  10 , Carlo La Vecchia  11 , Guido Bertolini  1 , Stefano Paglia  12 , Ferdinando Luca Lorini  13 , Giuseppe Remuzzi  1
Affiliations

Bergamo and Covid-19: How the Dark Can Turn to Light

Norberto Perico et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread rapidly. Here we discuss the dramatic situation created by COVID-19 in Italy, particularly in the province of Bergamo (the most severely affected in the first wave), as an example of how, in the face of an unprecedented tragedy, acting (albeit belatedly)-including imposing a very strict lockdown-can largely resolve the situation within approximately 2 months. The measures taken here ensured that Bergamo hospital, which was confronted with rapidly rising numbers of severely ill COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization, was able to meet the initial challenges of the pandemic. We also report that local organization and, more important, the large natural immunity against SARS-CoV-2 of the Bergamo population developed during the first wave of the epidemic, can explain the limited number of new COVID-19 cases during the more recent second wave compared to the numbers in other areas of Lombardy. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of coordinating the easing of containment measures to avoid what is currently observed in other countries, especially in the United States, Latin American and India, where this approach has not been adopted, and a dramatic resurgence of COVID-19 cases and an increase in the number of hospitalisations and deaths have been reported.

Keywords: Bergamo hospital challenges and reorganization; COVID-19 in Bergamo; Italian National Health Service; SARS-CoV-2 containment measures; SARS-CoV-2 infection spread; lockdown and face masks; second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer AG declared a shared affiliation, with no collaboration, with one of the authors, AL, to the handling editor at the time of the review.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reported laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in the different regions of Italy (on 22 July 2020). (Data from Ministero della Salute, 22 July 2020).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in Bergamo province from 24 February to 31 March 2020. Inset: number of SARS-CoV-2 cases up to 22 July 2020. (Data from Ministero della Salute, 22 July 2020).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Daily visits for COVID-19 at Emergency Room of Bergamo hospital. (From 23 February to 15 April 2020). Dashed line indicates threshold of more than 45 daily visits.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Emergency Room visits (A) and Hospital admission (B) at Bergamo hospital (from 23 February to 31 May 2020). Each point represents mean visits/admissions during 5 consecutive days. Blue line and orange line indicate COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 visit/admission, respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5
New daily cases in Lombardy, Milan province and Bergamo province during the period 27 August to 31 December 2020 (second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Italy).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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