The Lombardy region of Italy launches the first investigative COVID-19 commission

Patterns of COVID-19 related excess mortality in the municipalities of Northern Italy during the first wave of the pandemic

“…Lombardy has a Regional Health System based on a strong hospital-centered approach, with many excellences in secondary and tertiary care. The Veneto region has an RHS with a solid primary care level; Emilia-Romagna is somewhere in between, but its health care system is more similar to the one in Veneto ( Cicchetti et al, 2020 ; Usuelli, 2020 ). When SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in Vo’, the RHS in Veneto and the policies adopted at the regional and local level allowed a quick reaction.…”

“…On the contrary, the organizational structure of the RHS in Lombardy that promotes a hospital centered approach at the expenses of the community-based services, may have contributed to exacerbate the criticalities presented by COVID-19 ( Usuelli, 2020 ). Thereto, the region did not address the outbreak adopting the same plan in municipalities experiencing similar circumstances: while the towns around Lodi were quickly declared red zones when the first cases were identified, successfully containing the spread of the virus, the virus outbreak in a hospital in the province of Bergamo did not lead to the establishment of a confinement, that was implemented only when the national lockdown was enforced ( De Luca, 2020 ).…”

Comparison of Deaths Rates for COVID-19 across Europe During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Thus, despite the scenes of struggling hospitals, its death rate 30 days after the onset of the epidemic was well-below the corresponding figures in the Community of Madrid and in Brussels (41.4/100,000 in Lombardy vs. 77.1 and 48.6/100,000, respectively) (13). Yet it can now be seen that Lombardy has experienced overall the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in Europe (14). There are several possible reasons: it was the first region to be affected in Europe, at a time when there was little understanding how to manage this new illness.…”

Modeling the COVID-19 transmission in Italy: The roles of asymptomatic cases, social distancing, and lockdowns in the first and the second waves

“…It is important to note that the SEIR model will be set in two types of the first confirmed cases. Previous studies (e.g., Usuelli, 2020) noted that COVID-19 models of Italy should assume that the first confirmed case is infected Chinese tourists who was acknowledged as an imported COVID-19 case on January 31 st , 2020. While other studies (De Natale et al, 2020;Gatto et al, 2020;Sjödin et al, 2020) assumed that the first Italian confirmed case should be the first infected male on February 21 st , 2020.…”