The IMEDD would like to catch the attention of the Italian Authorities and the International Community of Health concerned by COVID19 that Italy now presents a faster increase of its cases than China did. Therefore, some more serious measures should be fastly taken by Italy (and its neighbouring countries) in order to protect the population even more than it is now.
In reality, after 2.5 weeks, we read the following information in the numbers of the day (17/03/2020).
CHINA
- Step of the propagation: end of the epidemy (nearly finished).
- Duration: a bit more than 2 months
- Total cases: 80 881
- Total deaths: 3226
- Proportion of deaths among the total cases: 4%
ITALY
- Step of the propagation: growth
- Duration: 2.5 weeks
- Total cases: 31 506
- Total deaths: 2503
- Proportion of deaths among the total cases: 8%
It means that in a very short amount of time, Italy has reached the double of the proportion of deaths among the total cases compared to China. We clearly see too, that the numbers of cases in Italy are increasing much too fast, in a totally unmastered proportion (third day over 3000 cases each day).
We see that Italy has reached 40% of the total cases of China, but Italy has already reached 78% of the deaths that occured in China, meaning that we are about to expect a massive explosion, first of cases, then of deaths in Italy in the upcoming weeks.
Those very scary numbers foresight some very dark weeks for Italy:
- with a massive increase of patients infected by the coronavirus
- with a total overpassing of the healthcare structures all around Italy
Considering the situation on this day, 17th of March 2020, here are the measures advised…
- Medical and safety workforce:
The medical safety sectors of Italy should expect a big increase in their activities in the upcoming weeks, meaning, that it’s still important to recall, still today, to delay all the little operations that can be done later, to give priority to the people infected by covid19.
Organizing the requisitioning of the hotels or structures with beds that could welcome some patients. - The measures of lockdown at home should be reinforced:
Too many people are still in the streets. The sector of the construction hasn’t stopped yet, still too many people on the roads. All the unneeded jobs for the good functioning of the State must be put at home straight away, unless the contamination in Italy will become totally under control. - Harmonization of the sanctions:
The sanctions for non-respect of the lockdown at home during the health crisis should be harmonized for all the countries. The situation is already difficult for everybody. There is no need of having different sanctions depending on the countries. All the people are equal when they face the risk of disease and safety. The model of Italy should be followed: a fine over 200 euros or 3 months of jail (the goal being, for the jail, to discourage those who put the whole country and people at risk due to their non-respect of the rules. It is a global effort that must be done by the entire population of each country).
If needed for security, the Army should be requisitioned to reinforce the police in their controls.
From the situation of today, it has to be understood by all that the measures taken by the European Countries are not safe enough (with the example of Italy in first line) and they still continue to feed the propagation of the coronavirus.
The other countries need to realize the size of the catastrophe that presently occurs in Italy and the upcoming risks for their own countries. They should reinforce their safety measures straight away. Italy is just a few weeks ahead in its management of the crisis, and no country on earth can say that it would have done better or not. The thing is that considering the experience of Italy, the safety measures should be reinforced for all countries, starting from now, as a team, not one after the other (it would avoid tensions as well for the populations).
Everybody understands well the economic impacts, the jobs or lives impacts due to this crisis… It’s not the moment to talk anymore.
Lives are at risk.
The priority is to act for the obligation of lockdown at home, then once the people are at home, it will be the time to talk about economy and the rest of the people’s lives.
The IMEDD urges the countries to :
- assume their Corporate Social Responsibility towards their population, by taking the measures exactly in phase with the reality of the health situation.
- accelerate the movement: the governments processes are also too slow in their public safety response comparing to the speed of propagation of the virus.
- take the right measure of the situation and reinforce the Safety Plan to a higher level in the upcoming days, the main guideline being, avoiding all kinds of new propagation (it’s a question of survival for many people).
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Read all the IMEDD’s articles since the beginning of the covid19’s crisis in Italy:
http://www.imedd-group.com/en/category/who/
