Italy:Ambulances transporting patients to new hospital

 

Ambulances in Italy's capital were busy transporting patients to a new hospital specifically equipped to tackle the new coronavirus on Tuesday morning.

Footage shows patients, some with faces blurred in accordance with Italy's laws to protect their identity, being brought in to the new facility by paramedics clad in protective suits, masks and gloves.

The new clinic opened on Monday and is quickly filling its beds with patients coming from the nearby Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic and from the Rome area.

At the Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic, 21 new ICU units and 32 new beds for infective diseases were opened on Monday morning, as part of the new Columbus Covid 2 Hospital, an area fully dedicated to the COVID-19 cases in order to support the regional health authorities in containing the pandemic.

Within 10 days the Columbus Covid 2 Hospital will be completed with 74 new beds and 59 ICU units: 20 doctors, 65 nurses and 22 social-health operator will be working for hospitalizations of Covid patients, while 48 anaesthetists and 180 nurses will be committed to the ICU units.

The new hospital was created in a building previously dedicated to orthopaedic wards and quickly turned into an infective disease unit.

The Columbus Covid 2 Hospital belongs to the Gemelli, the biggest private hospital integrated in the free public health care system in Italy.

In 2005 Pope John Paul II was hospitalized at Gemelli, which is also an important medicine university and a medical research center.

The main Coronavirus hub in Rome is currently the infective disease hospital Spallanzani.

Italy reported another jump in infections Monday, up more than 3,000 to 27,980.

With 2,158 deaths, including 349 more in just the last 24 hours, Italy now accounts for well over a quarter of the global death toll.

Cases, however, slowed in Lombardy, the hardest-hit region.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 181,000 people and killed more than 7,000 worldwide.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.