Medics in Italy have declared the fight against COVID-19 as full blown war.
Some photos taken at the intensive care unit where coronavirus patients are being treated shows how some of them lie face down, hooked up to machines and cared for by medics in full protective suits.
Another 97 people were killed by the virus there yesterday, bringing the death toll to 463 as the number infected jumped to 9,172.
The whole country will today be locked down as the quarantine of 16 million people in the north is extended to the whole of Italy.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said movement will be restricted throughout the country and that people should not travel except for work and emergencies.
“All the measure of the red zones are now extended to all of the national territory,” Conte said at a press conference on Monday evening as he also announced a ban on all public events, including sports, until next month.
An Italian intensive care doctor has told of fighting on the front line against Covid-19 in Bergamo, Lombardy – hitting back at those who claim it is no worse than flu. Dr Daniele Macchini of Humanitas Gavazzeni hospital likened it to war.
He tells of the full horror in a bid to convince people the threat is real – and that everyone has their part to play to stop its spread.
He said: “After much thought about whether and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that silence was not responsible.
“I will therefore try to convey to people far from our reality what we are living in Bergamo in these days of Covid-19 pandemic. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the danger of what is happening does not reach people I shudder.
“I saw with some amazement the reorganisation of the entire hospital in the past week, when our enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly emptied, elective treatments were interrupted, intensive care was freed up to create as many beds as possible.
