BERGAMO, Italy (AP) – A year ago, the state-of-the-art hospital of Pope John XXIII in Bergamo collapsed as doctors struggled to treat 600 patients, with 100 of them in intensive care. Army trucks transported the dead from the city’s imposed crematorium with images now in the collective pandemic memory.
The picture is much better now: the hospital treats fewer than 200 patients with viruses, only a quarter of whom require intensive care.
But without change, as Italy’s mortality rate rises once again, it is that the victims are still mostly elderly, with inoculation drives stumbling in the country and elsewhere in Europe..
“No, that, unfortunately, I have not been able to protect the elderly, to make clear how important it would be to protect the elderly,” said Dr. Luca Lorini, head of intensive care at the mid-century hospital. 20th century pope born in Bergamo. “If I have ten people over the age of 80 and they have COVID, in their age group, eight out of ten die.”
It was true in the first horrific wave and it stayed “absolutely the same” on subsequent rises, he said.
Promises to vaccinate all Italians over the age of eighty in late March have been hugely short, amid well-documented interruptions in vaccine supply and organizational deficiencies. Only a third of Italy’s 7.3 million doses administered so far have been intended for people in this age group, and more than half of those carrying World War II memorabilia are still awaiting their first hit.
“We should be done with that by now,” Lorini told The Associated Press.
The new Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, promised during a visit to Bergamo on Thursday that the vaccination campaign would be accelerated. His statements came when he inaugurated a park to honor the country’s more than 104,000 deaths from the pandemic. At the beginning of March, two-thirds of the virus-related deaths in Italy were over eighty; the average age of deaths from pandemic in Italy currently exceeds 80 years after rising to 85 last summer.
“We are here to promise our elders that it will not happen again that fragile people are not helped and adequately protected. Only in this way will we respect those who have left us, ”Draghi said on the anniversary of the first army convoy carrying the virus from Bergamo.
Italy can expect to see its future looking to Britain, the first country in Europe to authorize widespread vaccinations. More than 38% of the UK population has been inoculated since early December, starting with people over the age of 70, health workers and care home staff.
Britain, which leads Europe in virus deaths, has seen the death toll among people over the age of 75 fall from 75% of the total before the vaccination campaign to 64% in the week ending 5 March. Deaths in Britain have fallen from an average of 128 a day in the most recent seven-day period, to a high of 1,248 in the week ended January 20, also thanks to blockade measures.
Along with health workers, Spain, France and Italy prioritized vaccination of nursing home residents, by far the most affected population in the spring. They account for almost a third of the deaths in the first wave in Italy and a third of the French pandemic figure of almost 91,100.
In France, COVID-19 infections and deaths in care homes have been steadily declining as the number of vaccinated has increased, and 85% have received at least one shot. Early signs indicate that the proportion of patients with ICU aged 75 and over has also begun to decline since February, with almost half in this age group at least partially vaccinated. The improved image for nursing home residents comes despite a renewed worsening of France’s outbreak.
Spain has experienced a huge decline in infections and deaths in nursing homes, following the first phase of its vaccination program, with a significant decline in deaths.
In Italy, where vaccinations for nursing home residents began in January, compared to mid-February for the elderly, lower infection rates in nursing homes have been declared an “early success” .
“We can’t count it as a victory, absolutely not, of the vaccination strategy,” Dr. Giovanni Rezza, director of infectious diseases at the Ministry of Health, recently acknowledged.
On Friday, Draghi said Italy aimed to manage 500,000 daily shots next month, from a current daily level of about 165,000.
With Italy’s infection rate for the seventh consecutive week driven by the UK’s fast-paced variant, more than 2.5 million Italians over the age of 80 are waiting for their shots. What’s worse, many still don’t have indications of when they might get them.
Luca Fusco founded a group to remember the dead and defend justice in his 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 yet to receive an appointment to be vaccinated more than a month after she filed an application. Fusco said this was true for most of the hundreds of seniors in his small town near Bergamo, adding that they were required to travel 30 miles (20 kilometers) to get each shot, a burden for many. .
Italy’s goal is to vaccinate 80% of the population in September and Draghi has appointed an army general to relaunch the campaign. Fusco said his group, “Boy We Will Report,” (“We Will Report”) will act as the watchdog for the issue.
“Draghi said that by September we will all be vaccinated. Perfect, “Fusco said.” We’ve taken note. If that’s not true, we’ll make our voices heard … and ask Draghi for explanations. “
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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 collaborated.
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