Response to COVID-19: was Italy (un)prepared?

Abstract

On 31st January 2020, the Italian cabinet declared a 6-month national emergency after the detection of the first two COVID-19 positive cases in Rome, two Chinese tourists travelling from Wuhan. Between then and the total lockdown introduced on 22nd March 2020 Italy was hit by an unprecedented crisis. In addition to being the first European country to be heavily swept by the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy was the first to introduce stringent lockdown measures. The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and related COVID-19 pandemic have been the worst public health challenge endured in recent history by Italy. Two months since the beginning of the first wave, the estimated excess deaths in Lombardy, the hardest hit region in the country, reached a peak of more than 23,000 deaths. The extraordinary pressures exerted on the Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) inevitably leads to questions about its preparedness and the appropriateness and effectiveness of responses implemented at both national and regional levels. The aim of the paper is to critically review the Italian response to the COVID-19 crisis spanning from the first early acute phases of the emergency (March–May 2020) to the relative stability of the epidemiological situation just before the second outbreak in October 2020.

Changes in Attitudes and Beliefs Concerning Vaccination and Influenza Vaccines between the First and Second COVID-19 Pandemic Waves: A Longitudinal Study

“…Italy was the first European country where SARS-CoV-2 spread significantly, with the so-called "first pandemic wave" starting in March 2020 [6]. Owing to fears of the possible co-circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses, which share several clinical signs and symptoms, some changes were made to Italian IV policy.…”

Corona-regionalism? Differences in regional responses to COVID-19 in Italy

“…In addition, in analysing countries’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, our study has highlighted the bias in reports focusing on the national level only and stressed the importance of looking also at sub-national levels, especially in decentralised systems like the Italian one (as also pointed to in [44] ). For Italy, this is an issue that deserves further investigation.…”

Public Health Regulations and Policies Dealing with Preparedness and Emergency Management: The Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

“…Therefore, several immediate actions have been implemented to contain the spread of the virus, also in accordance with the eight pillars proposed by WHO [40]. Among these, the creation of specific task forces of experts and the involvement of technical and scientific support bodies at national (ISS, AIFA) and regional level to provide scientific advice to the government, and the allocation of significant economic resources (EUR 3.7 billion in 2020 and EUR 1.7 billion in 2021) to health systems [41] in order to enhance epidemiological surveillance, testing capacity and laboratory activities, to increase hospital facilities and intensive care units beds, and to create of special units to manage COVID-19 patients, establishing a COVID-19 integrated surveillance system [41][42][43].…”