Grim warning to 'partying' Italy as nation's death toll overtakes China
Italy’s death toll has surpassed China’s in a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic.
The European epicentre has now recorded 3,405 deaths, roughly 250 more than China, providing a stark illustration of how the crisis has pivoted towards the West.
To put Italy’s crisis into context, its population is more than 20 times smaller than that of the Asian powerhouse.
Italy’s rise to the top of the death toll standings comes as China claimed there had been no new confirmed cases in Wuhan, the believed ground zero of COVID-19. If true, it’s an indication that China’s strict, unrelenting lockdown of Hubei province, with a population just shy of Italy’s, has worked.
However with the soaring death toll, and a health care system on its knees, there are concerns Italy has failed to implement such rigorous measures.
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‘Partying in hotels’ amid lockdown
On Thursday, a visiting Chinese Red Cross team criticised Italians’ failure to properly quarantine themselves and take the national lockdown seriously.
Sun Shuopeng, the head of a Chinese Red Cross delegation helping advise Italy, said he was shocked to see so many people walking around, using public transportation and eating out and partying in hotels in hard-hit Milan.
“Right now we need to stop all economic activity and we need to stop the mobility of people,” he said.
“All people should be staying at home in quarantine.”
However the president of Italy’s paediatric medicine society, Alberto Villani, hit back and insisted Italy’s measures were a model for other nations.
As long as Italians “rigorously” abide by strict measures to stay at home and maintain social distancing, “Italy will overcome the challenge,” he said.
Spain has been the hardest-hit European country after Italy, and in Madrid a four-star hotel began operating as a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients.
The British government, which was slow to react to the virus, shifted gears and drew up legislation giving itself new powers to detain people and restrict gatherings.
The bill is expected to be approved by Parliament next week. In London, home to almost 9 million, authorities urged people to stay off public transportation and considered imposing tougher travel restrictions.
There have so far been 9,790 deaths and 236,420 cases globally, while 84,962 people have recorded, according to Johns Hopkins University data as of 7am (AEDT) on Friday.
China US relations deteriorate as virus spreads
And it wasn’t just Europe where the Western world suffered badly. The US surpassed 10,000 cases while Australia edged towards 1000.
On Thursday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged all of the state’s people to behave as if they have contracted the virus.
With the virus continuing to paralyse large parts of the West, US President Donald Trump continued his campaign to brand the outbreak the “Chinese virus”, prompting concerns from inside and outside of the US of a surge in sinophobic behaviour.
When pressed by a reporter on Wednesday about his comments, Mr Trump insisted they weren’t racist.
“It comes from China, that's why. I want to be accurate," he said.
His stance is likely a response to baseless claims from Chinese government officials that the US army had transported COVID-19 to Wuhan.
With AP
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