BERGAMO, Italy (AP) – A year ago, the state-of-the-art Pope John XXIII Hospital in Bergamo collapsed as doctors struggled to treat 600 patients, 100 of whom were in intensive care. Army trucks transported the dead from the city’s overcrowded crematorium in images now burned in memory of the collective pandemic.
The picture is much improved now: the hospital treats less than 200 patients with the virus, of which only a quarter require intensive care.
But still unchanged, as Italy’s death rate rises again, is that the victims remain predominantly old, with inoculation being prevented in the country and elsewhere in Europe..
“No, this thing, unfortunately, I failed to protect the elderly, to clarify how important it would be to protect the elderly,” said Dr. Luca Lorini, head of intensive care at the hospital appointed for the mid-20s. the pope of the century born in Bergamo. “If I have 10 elderly people over the age of 80 and receive COVID, in their age group, eight out of 10 die.”
This was true in the first terrible wave and remained “absolutely the same” in subsequent peaks, he said.
Promises to vaccinate all Italians over the age of 80 by the end of March were extremely short, amid well-documented interruptions in the supply of vaccines and organizational deficiencies. Only a third of the 7.3 million doses administered in Italy so far have been for people in that age group, more than half of those who carry memories of World War II are still waiting for the first blow.
“We should have finished this already,” Lorini told the Associated Press.
Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi, promised during a visit to Bergamo on Thursday that the vaccination campaign would be accelerated. His comments came when he inaugurated a park to honor more than 104,000 deaths in the country due to the pandemic. In early March, two-thirds of Italy’s virus-related deaths were among those over 80; The median age of pandemic deaths in Italy is now over 80, after turning 85 last summer.
“We are here to promise our elders that it will never happen again that frail people will not be adequately helped and protected. This is the only way we will respect those who left us “, said Draghi on the anniversary of the first convoy of the army carrying the dead virus from Bergamo.
Italy can hope to see its future in the UK, the first country in Europe to authorize large-scale vaccinations. More than 38% of the UK’s population has been inoculated since early December, starting at the age of 70, with health workers and nursing staff.
The UK, which leads Europe in terms of deaths from viruses, has seen the death rate among people over the age of 75 fall from 75% of total pre-vaccination campaigns to 64% in the week ending March . one day in the most recent seven-day period, from a high of 1,248 in the week ended January 20 – thanks to blocking measures.
Together with health workers, Spain, France and Italy have given priority to vaccinating nursing home residents, by far the population most affected by spring growth. They account for almost a third of the deaths in Italy’s first wave and a third of France’s pandemic number of almost 91,100.
In France, COVID-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes have steadily evolved as the number of vaccinations has increased, with 85% of them receiving at least one stroke. Early signs indicate that the proportion of intensive care patients aged 75 and over has started to decline since February, with almost half of this age group being vaccinated at least partially. The improved image for nursing home residents comes despite a worsening of the French outbreak.
Spain has seen a huge decrease in infections and deaths in nursing homes, after the first phase of its vaccination program, with a significant decrease in deaths.
In Italy, where nursing home vaccinations began in January compared to mid-February for other older people, lower rates of infection in nursing homes have been declared “early success”.
“We cannot consider it a victory, absolutely not, of the vaccination strategy,” recently admitted Dr. Giovanni Rezza, director of infectious diseases at the Ministry of Health.
On Friday, Draghi said Italy aims to manage 500,000 photos a day by next month, from a current daily level of about 165,000.
As Italy’s infection rate rises for the seventh week in a row, driven by the fast-paced version in the UK, more than 2.5 million Italians over the age of 80 are waiting to be shot. What’s worse, many still have no indication when they might get them.
Luca Fusco founded a group to remember the dead and plead for justice in their memory, after his father died of COVID-19 on March 11, 2020.
Her mother, who celebrated her 83rd birthday on the anniversary of her husband’s death, has not yet received an appointment to be vaccinated more than a month after applying. Fusco said this is true for most of the several hundred elderly people in their small town near Bergamo, adding that they are required to travel 30 miles (20 kilometers) to get each shot, a burden for many.
Italy’s goal is to vaccinate 80 percent of the population by September, and Draghi has appointed an army general to relaunch the campaign. Fusco said his group, “We Denunceremo” (“We will denounce”) will act as a watchdog in this matter.
“Draghi said that by September we will all be vaccinated. Perfect, ”said Fusco. “It simply came to our notice then. If this is not true, we will make our voices heard … and ask Draghi for an explanation. ”
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Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London, John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Samuel Petrequin in Brussels contributed.
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