Italy’s Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported

[JimO]

Many are dying uncounted as nation’s stretched health-care system struggles to save the living and accurately gauge human cost

MILAN—In the town of Coccaglio, an hour’s drive east of here, the local nursing home lost over a third of its residents in March. None of the 24 people who died there were tested for the new coronavirus. Nor were the 38 people who died in another nursing home in the nearby town of Lodi.

These aren’t isolated incidents. Italy’s official death toll from the virus stands at 13,155, the most of any country in the world. But that number tells only part of the story because many people who die from the virus don’t make it to the hospital and are never tested.

In the areas worst hit by the pandemic, Italy is undercounting thousands of deaths caused by the virus, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows, indicating that the pandemic’s human toll may end up being much greater, and infections far more widespread, than official data indicate.

more...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/italys-...ed-11585767179

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.thelocal.it/20200403/whats-the-problem-with-italys-official-coronavirus-statistics

What's the problem with Italy's official coronavirus numbers?
Clare Speak
3 April 2020
17:14 CEST+02:00

There is growing evidence that the death toll and infection rate figures being reported daily by Italian officials may be much lower than the reality.

Since the coronavirus outbreak began in Italy in late February, the public has been relying on official government data for a picture of how many deaths, cases, and recoveries there have been in each part of the country, and how things are changing.

Italy's Department for Civil Protection releases these statistics daily at around 6pm. The data is then pored over by experts worldwide, looking for evidence that Italy's quarantine measures are containing the spread as hoped – and that other countries can confidently follow its example.

But a growing number of Italian experts have now said these numbers may not be reliable.

“For sure, the figures are wrong,” said Matteo Villa, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Political Studies and author of a a new study (in Italian) titled ”Coronavirus: Lethality in Italy, between appearance and reality"

He that the death toll may have been underestimated by up to 6,000, or a third of the official total...

 

[tetano]

The reported dead are those who have been confirmed by the swab. It is normal during events of this seriousness that not all deaths are recognized and result only from the surveillance of all-cause mortality. Even for the flu it is like this, officially recognized deaths are only a small proportion of real deaths