A new surge of COVID-19 infections and flu cases is burdening Italian hospitals, with more than 1,100 patients waiting to recover in facilities in Rome and the region of Lazio, according to Italian news media and organizations.
The official data comes from SIMEU, the Italian Society for Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care, which reported that a recent peak in COVID-19 infections at the end of 2023 and an explosion of flu cases has added unbearable pressure to the capital and the region's health system.
The number of patients in the region is more than double those of the northern region of Piedmont (500), showing how Lazio and Rome are struggling to find space for those who need medical attention.
But the problem is widespread: in the region of Lombardy, where Milan is located, ordinary recoveries have been suspended because of overcrowding. Hundreds of people were reportedly stuck in emergency departments as they waited for treatment. The region was the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in the country in early 2020.
On January 3, the Italian news agency ANSA wrote that hospitals in Naples were also overwhelmed by the number of patients positive for COVID-19. According to Lab24, a platform curated by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, there were 40,990 new cases of COVID-19 in Italy in the week between December 21 and 27, -32.2 percent compared to the week before, and 279 deaths.
The number of people recovered in intensive therapy was up 1.8 percent compared to the previous week.
The rise in hospital admissions appears to be linked to an increase in respiratory diseases, especially among the elderly. An influenza-like illness is spreading at the same time as COVID-19 cases make a comeback.
According to Walter Ricciardi, professor of Hygiene and Public Health at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, the current crisis is the result of the Italian government "not actively promoting vaccination, that is, not actually making the vaccine available and not encouraging with active vaccination campaigns."
Ricciardi told Newsweek that "the information campaigns were late and completely insufficient, so in fact, the message did not reach the people at risk first. Vaccinations should have started in September, but in Lazio, they're starting rolling out the vaccine boosters now."
For Ricciardi, the situation isn't comparable to the health emergency of 2020.
"The situation is essentially an abnormal respiratory emergency burden, well known and manageable," he said. "While in 2020 the knowledge and technologies for the task were completely insufficient, now we have all the appropriate knowledge, but we have not had the capacity to put it into practice and try to prevent this situation."
Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding said on X, formerly Twitter, that "something very weird is happening in Italy. Italian scientists are baffled at hospital ER surge—even calling it 'strange.'"
"The description of the hospital crisis from multiple Italian / EU outlets is severe and occurring in multiple major cities in Italy - Rome, Turin, Milan... not just in isolated hospitals," Feigl-Ding said in a later post. "Entire cities are overwhelmed by the respiratory cases of flu and COVID it seems."
Newsweek reached out to Feigl-Ding for comment via email on Thursday.
Two Lazio regional officials who went to inspect a couple of facilities in Rome on Tuesday said they found the places to be overcrowded, with ambulances parked in front of the ER being used as extra beds for the patients, Roma Today reported.
The two blamed a chronic lack of medical staff and COVID-19 vaccination delays for the complex situation in the capital and the region now. SIMEU's president, Fabio De Iaco, told Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano that many doctors in Italy were unable to take time off during the Christmas holiday in order to match the demand for treatment over the same period.
SIMEU told Newsweek that Italy is short of at least 4,000 doctors and about 12,000 nurses in emergency departments. Hospitals are struggling to find people to cover all the shifts.
The current crisis is also exacerbated by a recent fire that struck a hospital in Tivoli, some 17 miles away from Rome. The fire that engulfed the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital on December 9 killed three people and left 450,000 others without use of the facility.
Update 01/10/24, 11:43 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Walter Ricciardi and SIMEU.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
