Italy

ROME, April 3 (Xinhua) - To date, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 14,681 lives in locked-down Italy. The number of confirmed infections, fatalities and recoveries totaled 119,827 on Friday, the country's Civil Protection Department managing the national emergency response said on Friday.

BERGAMO /Italy/, April 3. /TASS/: Russia’s military specialists jointly with Italian colleagues have carried out a disinfection effort at 20 retirement homes in northern Italy’s Lombardy, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"Russian epidemiologists and specialists of radiation, chemical, and biological protection troops of the Russian Defense Ministry jointly with Italian military specialists have carried out a full sanitary disinfection effort at 20 retirement homes in Lombardy. Over 80,000 square meters of indoor premises have been disinfected," the ministry said.

ROME, Apr 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Italy will remain under a nationwide anti-COVID-19 lock-down until Apr 13, Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, said, in a televised press conference on Wednesday evening.

The announcement came just two days before the current lock-down, which started on Mar 10, was due to end on Apr 3 (tomorrow).

“We have surpassed 13,000 deaths, and this is a wound that pains us especially — it is a wound that will never heal,” Conte said.

1 April 2020; AFP: Italian doctors and unions have warned that a government policy to send patients discharged from hospital but still positive for coronavirus to care homes is like priming "biological bombs".

With over 28,000 people in hospital including more than 4,000 in intensive care, beds need to be freed up as soon as possible, and those unable to convalesce in isolation at home are being moved to care homes or requisitioned hotels.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said on Wednesday that the business lobby’s forecast of a 6% fall in gross domestic product due to the coronavirus emergency this year is realistic.

“Unfortunately the estimates are realistic... at the same time we can say that (the Italian economy) can aim at a vigorous rebound,” Gualtieri told daily Il Fatto Quotidiano in an interview.

ROME, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus pandemic continued to advance in locked down Italy on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries to 105,792, according to the latest data released by the country's Civil Protection Department.

The death toll on Tuesday was 837, bringing the total to 12,428 fatalities since the pandemic first broke out in northern Italy on Feb. 21.

ROME, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus pandemic has so far claimed 11,591 lives in locked-down Italy, as the cumulative number of cases reached 101,739, according to new data released on Monday evening by the Civil Protection Department, managing the national emergency response.

The death of 812 COVID-19 patients was registered on the daily basis, compared to Sunday's 756 deaths.

Coronavirus patients currently in intensive care units were 3,981, while patients hospitalized in normal wards were 27,795.

GENOA, March 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 102-year-old Italian woman, Italica Grondona, has survived the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 after spending more than 20 days in hospital.

Although the aged are said to be among those highly vulnerable to COVID-19, Grondona recovered from coronavirus in the northern Italian city of Genoa.

“We nicknamed her ‘Highlander’ – the immortal,” said Vera Sicbaldi, the doctor who treated Grondona. “Italica represents a hope for all the elderly facing this pandemic.”

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Pope Francis on Sunday backed a call by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire so the world can focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, reported Reuters.

Speaking at his weekly blessing, delivered from the official papal library instead of St. Peter’s Square because of the lockdown in Italy, Francis specifically mentioned the appeal Guterres made in a virtual news conference on Monday.

ROME, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The cumulative number of coronavirus cases in Italy reached 86,498 on Friday, exceeding the total figure registered in China, according to data by the Civil Protection Department coordinating the national emergency response.

The pandemic also claimed 969 lives, a new single-day record high in fatalities registered here since the outbreak hit the country's northern regions on Feb. 21.