Coronavirus patients treated in isolation STRETCHERS in Italy’s overwhelmed hospitals as death toll hits 2,500
CORONAVIRUS patients in Italy have been treated on special isolation stretchers as the death toll in the country passes 2500.
The health service in Italy, the European country worst affected by the coronavirus, has been overwhelmed and over 31,000 people have been infected.
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Medical workers in protective hazmat suits were pictured transferring patients on the stretchers from an intensive care unit to a specialist coronavirus hospital in Rome.
The number of those infected rose by 12.6 percent, the slowest rate of increase since the coronavirus struck Italy.
But the death toll in the country is the highest outside China.
Morgues in Italy have also been overwhelmed and some in the hardest-hit northern areas of Italy are said to be unable to cope with the number of bodies despite working around the clock.
"Unfortunately, we don't know where to put them," Bergamelli said. "It takes time and the dead are many."
Crematoriums are said to be working 24 hours a day but still cannot keep up.
Nurses in Italy have been taking to social media to reveal the state of patient care.
Some health care workers in Lombardy say the hospitals cannot cope with demand and they are running out of beds.
"You declare defeat. We'll try to salvage what's salvageable."
The Post also reported that doctors in Italy had to issue guidelines on which patients would be judged to have access to the dwindling supply of ventilators, saying the young and those with the best chance of survival were given top priority.
Alberto Ceresoli, the editor of , the local paper in the area, told the Times that the community has faced real trauma.
"These are people who die alone and who are buried alone. They didn't have someone hold their hand and the funerals have to be tiny, with a quick prayer from the priest," he said. "Many of the close relatives are in quarantine."
Yesterday a previously fit and healthy paramedic, 46, in Italy died from the coronavirus after telling his wife he was fine.
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