Italy: 349 People Die in 24 Hours, Coronavirus Death Toll Exceeds 2,100

Undertakers wearing a face mask move a coffin out of a hearse on March 16, 2020 at the Mon
PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images

In the last 24 hours, 349 people have died in Italy from the Chinese coronavirus, bringing the nation’s death toll to 2,158 on Monday, from 1,809 a day earlier.

Newly released data from Italy’s Civil Protection reveals that the country’s death toll has jumped from 1,809 deaths on Sunday to 2,158 on Monday, as well as 24,747 confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday to 27,980 on Monday.

As Italy’s coronavirus death toll and confirmed cases surge, hospitals across the nation are overwhelmed with patients who have fallen victim to the Chinese virus, while doctors say that they have been forced to ration services for older, sicker patients in order to prioritize younger patients who are more likely to be saved.

But hospitals are not the only facilities left overwhelmed due to the consequences of the Wuhan virus.

The mayor of Bergamo, for example, recently said that the crematory in his city is “unable to dispose of all the work it has to do,” as it has received an overabundance of bodies of those who have died due to the Chinese virus.

“The crematory is no longer enough,” said Bergamo mayor Giorgio Gori. “The oven in the city of Bergamo is unable to dispose of all the work it has to do.”

Bergamo is an Italian city just northeast of Milan, located in the nation’s worst-infected Lombardy region, which has been at the center of Italy’s — and Europe’s — coronavirus crisis.

Among those in Italy who have died in just the last 24 hours due to the coronavirus, 202 of those deaths have been from the Lombardy region, according to La Repubblica.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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