A silent surge in fatalities in Italy's nursing homes – where dozens of patients are dying untested for coronavirus – suggests real total may be higher
Cemetery workers and funeral agency workers in protective masks transport a coffin of a person who died from coronavirus disease, into a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy March 16, 2020.
While no detailed data is available, officials, nurses and relatives say there has been a spike in nursing home deaths in the worst affected regions of northern Italy since the virus emerged, and they are not showing up in coronavirus statistics. Emilio Tanzi, director of Cremona Solidale, a 460-bed residence in the northern town of Cremona, said nursing homes were on the front lines of a crisis that predominantly affected the elderly, who nevertheless have not had adequate support.
"We don't know if there have been coronavirus deaths because the swabs haven't been done," he said. "We've certainly seen high fevers and breathing difficulties." He launched an appeal for more masks for staff on March 2 but, given the shortages, hospitals were judged to have a greater need. He said staff needed to be tested but that was not happening.
In her section, out of 40 people, 38 were in bed with high fevers, while care staff were forced to work without proper protective clothing. But with local hospitals already close to being overwhelmed by the thousands of new cases reported every day, transfers were proving impossible to organize. A Seattle-area nursing home became the deadliest US coronavirus outbreak to date, while in Spain, Madrid prosecutors are probing 17 coronavirus-related deaths at a nursing home after a patients' group complained.
For families, the pain is made worse by the fact that they have been unable to see or help their relatives since visitors were excluded.
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