Coronavirus: One-third of all new cases in Italian region in care homes

Regional health director says ‘must pay close attention’ to clusters

Nursing homes have accounted for one-third of all new coronavirus infections in an Italian region’s daily count, officials said.

The number of infections in central Lazio rose by 195 on Thursday, with more than 60 of these recorded in care homes.

“The rise was essentially linked to a cluster of cases in nursing homes and religious institutions which we must keep paying close attention to,” Alessio D’Amato, the region’s health director, said.

“The number of registered cases today in nursing homes was 67, which was more than one-third of the total daily cases,” he added.

Elderly residents who had tested positive at one centre in Rome – which sits in the Lazio region – were transferred to hospital facilities, Mr D’Amato said.

The nursing home had been put in isolation after some staff members were diagnosed with Covid-19, according to local media reports.

Coronavirus outbreaks have occurred in care homes around the world, including more than 140 in the US and others in Spain.

A suspected string of infections were reported at a nursing home in Brighton earlier this week.

Elderly people are more vulnerable to serious illness if they contract Covid-19, a flu-like disease that can turn into pneumonia, according to UK government advice.

Italy has been one of the worst-hit country’s in the world with the coronavirus pandemic, and has seen more than 80,500 people infected with the virus to date, according to official figures on Friday.

Around 8,000 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the country – more than double the death toll in China, where the disease originated towards the end of last year.