Italy calls in retired doctors to greatly help fight virus
Italy on Saturday started out recruiting retired doctors as part of urgent efforts to strengthen the healthcare system with 20,000 additional personnel and deal with the escalating viral epidemic.
The measure was one of the adopted by the federal government during an all-night cabinet meeting that came following the Mediterranean country reported 49 more deaths.
Friday's toll from the novel coronavirus was the best of the two-week crisis and got Italy's fatalities total to 197 - the biggest outside China itself.
The accelerating spread of the COVID-19 disease emptied Italian train stations and airports while turning usually thronging parts of Rome right into a ghost town. Lots of the city's outdoor eating places and cafes had been either shut on Friday nights or had free tables overseen by forlorn staff with little to do but chat.
The expansive street that runs from Rome's Colosseum along the Forum was deserted and the magnificent ruins stood in their natural splendour - and without having to be swarmed by tourists - on a sunny, warm Saturday morning.
The sharp drop in visitor numbers is wreaking havoc with the Italian tourism industry and contributing to fears that the anaemic economy is about to tip back into recession.
But the government's most immediate concern is that COVID-19 infections that were largely contained to pockets of the richer north begins spreading into the poorer and less medically equipped south.
The World Health Organization concluded a objective to Italy on Friday by recommending the government keep "a solid focus on containment measures".
The federal government said its medical recruitment travel should help dual the staff of hospitals' respiratory and infectious disease departments.
It should also increase the amount of intensive treatment beds from 5,000 to 7,500 found in the coming times.The quantity of Italians receiving intensive care treatment for the COVID-19 disease reached 462 on Friday.The full total number of coronavirus infections grew to 4,636 on Friday.
The Mediterranean Sea island of Malta that sits just south of Sicily reported its first case on Saturday.The Vatican is also unrolling unprecedented health precautions made to keep carefully the tiny city state's 450 mostly elderly residents safe.
A first COVID-19 infections was recorded at one of its clinics on Thursday and the effects were awaited on someone else who was tested after appearing at a Vatican-organised event previous month.
That conference was also attended by Microsoft President Brad Smith and European Parliament President David Sassoli.The Vatican said all attendees were being notified about the test as a precaution.
The pope himself missed that conference because he has been out of action for more than a week with a cold.The Vatican is likely to announce Saturday if the 83-year-previous pontiff will still deliver his Angelus Prayer from a window facing Saint Peter's Square on Sunday afternoon.
There's been media speculation that the pope might deliver the prayer by video link for the first time.The Vatican said on Thursday is was considering changes to the pope's schedule "to avoid the dissemination" of the brand new disease.
