As of January 1, 2025, the number of active coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in Italy was approximately 218,000. Among these, 42 infected individuals were being treated in intensive care units. Another 1,332 individuals infected with the coronavirus were hospitalized with symptoms, while approximately 217,000 thousand were in isolation at home. The total number of coronavirus cases in Italy reached over 26.9 million (including active cases, individuals who recovered, and individuals who died) as of the same date. The region mostly hit by the spread of the virus was Lombardy, which counted almost 4.4 million cases.For a global overview, visit Statista's webpage exclusively dedicated to coronavirus, its development, and its impact.

After entering Italy, the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread fast. The strict lockdown implemented by the government during the Spring 2020 helped to slow down the outbreak. However, the country had to face four new harsh waves of contagion. As of January 1, 2025, the total number of cases reported by the authorities reached over 26.9 million. The north of the country was mostly hit, and the region with the highest number of cases was Lombardy, which registered almost 4.4 million of them. The north-eastern region of Veneto and the southern region of Campania followed in the list. When adjusting these figures for the population size of each region, however, the picture changed, with the region of Veneto being the area where the virus had the highest relative incidence. Coronavirus in Italy Italy has been among the countries most impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Moreover, the number of deaths due to coronavirus recorded in Italy is significantly high, making it one of the countries with the highest fatality rates worldwide, especially in the first stages of the pandemic. In particular, a very high mortality rate was recorded among patients aged 80 years or older. Impact on the economy The lockdown imposed during the Spring 2020, and other measures taken in the following months to contain the pandemic, forced many businesses to shut their doors and caused industrial production to slow down significantly. As a result, consumption fell, with the sectors most severely hit being hospitality and tourism, air transport, and automotive. Several predictions about the evolution of the global economy were published at the beginning of the pandemic, based on different scenarios about the development of the pandemic. According to the official results, it appeared that the coronavirus outbreak had caused Italy’s GDP to shrink by approximately nine percent in 2020.

Since February 2020, when coronavirus disease began to spread in Italy, general practitioners (GPs) were called to manage a growing number of health situations. The challenges experienced by Italian GPs remained unrevealed. This study aimed at exploring Italian GPs' care experiences and practices associated with critical incidents during the first wave of the pandemic. A qualitative study design involving the critical incident technique through an online survey was applied. Sociodemographic data and open-ended responses were collected. While participants' characteristics were analyzed through descriptive statistics, qualitative data were thematically analyzed employing the framework method. 149 GPs responded to the survey and 99 participants completed the survey (dropout rate = 33%). Eight themes emerged indicating factors related to the organization of the healthcare system and factors related to the clinical management of patients, that were perceived as impacting on the GPs' care provision. The analysis revealed difficulties in communicating with other local services. This, together with the lack of coordination among services, was reported as a major challenge. Primary care was perceived as having been undervalued and criticalities in the organization of GP courses, led in a bureaucratic fashion, posed at risk some trainees to be infected. The digital technologies adopted for remote patient consultations were seen as useful tools for daily practice helping the GPs to stay emotionally connected with their patients. Besides, the improvement in the GP–patient relationship in terms of solidarity between patients and doctors and compliance to rules, had a positive impact. Moreover, many respondents addressed the importance of professional collaboration and teamwork, in terms of both support in practical issues (to find PPE, diagnostics and guidelines) and emotional support. At the same time, the lack of resources (e.g., PPE, swabs) and of specific guidelines and protocols impacted on the care provision. Our findings suggest that GPs in Italy are at risk of being left behind within the epidemic management. Communication and coordination among services are essential and should be substantially improved, and primary care research should be initiated to collect the context-specific evidence necessary to enhance the system's preparedness to public health emergencies and the quality of primary care services.

Italy experienced a sharp rise in the number of positive infections shortly after confirming its 100th coronavirus case. In the space of just 17 days, the number of cases in Italy had soared to more than 12,000. In comparison, the spread of the virus was much slower in Japan.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy Italy was the first European nation to be severely impacted by COVID-19. There had been approximately 35,400 coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the country as of August 17, 2020. Following a two-month lockdown period, restrictions in Italy were eased in early May, and citizens are now permitted to travel between regions and abroad. However, the risk of a resurgence remains, and the country’s state of emergency has been extended until October 15, 2020. It is looking increasingly likely that restrictions will not be completely lifted until a vaccine for the disease is discovered.

Pfizer confident of vaccine success Pfizer and BioNTech are jointly developing one candidate vaccine that is under clinical evaluation. In July 2020, the two companies announced an agreement with the U.S. government that will bring millions of doses to the American people. The BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine is currently being produced even though it has not received regulatory approval from the FDA. This is a risky approach and is one that could cost the companies millions of dollars should the vaccine be rejected. However, if regulatory approval is received, the safe and effective vaccine can be shipped quickly.

Project Summary This study compares the health behaviors of university students in France and Italy, examining how their choices and lifestyles were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to contribute to the development of adequate public health interventions. The survey methodology employed an online questionnaire administered to French and Italian cohorts of university students. It was found that the pandemic mainly affected the mental health and sense of well-being of young people in both countries. The pandemic also altered dietary habits, alcohol consumption, sleep quality, and physical activity levels, all of which strongly affect overall health. More critical values were generally found among the Italian students. The study underscores the need to recognize the impact that the pandemic has had on the young Italian and French student populations. Data Description and Collection Overview The aim of the study was to survey some aspects of life (secondary effects of the pandemic) related to university student cohorts. Specifically, using a comparative approach, the authors investigated possible differences between the two groups residing in different countries in terms of how those groups coexisted with the pandemic. The target populations were university students enrolled in para-medical health degree programs (Nursing, Physiotherapy, etc.) and degree programs in Physical Education for Health and Prevention. Information was collected in the post-acute phase of the third cycle of the pandemic. Specifically, the French cohort was surveyed between January and February 2022, while the Italian cohort was examined between March and April 2022. Based on investigations carried out in France, a suitable number of behaviors likely to be conditioned by the pandemic were selected from the literature. Data was collected for these behaviors using standardized tools, validated and recovered in full or partial form. The tool used in the Italian context, which is part of a larger French data set, consisted of three specific sections, to which a fourth, dedicated to describing the sociographic picture of the respondents, was added. The first section examined the general experience of the students before and during the pandemic, seeking to provide an initial picture of students’ habitual daily behaviors. The second section focused on eating habits without neglecting possible deviations related to eating disorders (SCOFF questionnaire - Sick Control One Stone Fat Food) and the possible use or abuse of alcohol and cigarettes. The third framework, based on a scale known in the literature as the IFIS questionnaire (International Fitness Scale), was used to assess the level of physical activity that characterized the subjects’ daily lives. In both contexts, data were collected through web surveys using institutional directories of university degree programs. Students were invited to complete the survey by a message explaining the purposes of the initiative. This message was followed a week later by a reminder message, whose aim was to boost the participation rate. The Italian participation rate of 25.7% was much higher than the French rate, which was just over 10%. A total of 567 participant responses were collected. Of those, 70.5% were from the French cohort and the remaining 29.5% from the Italian one, percentages which reflected the general populations in the two contexts under investigation (approximately 73% and 27%). The national cohort a respondent belongs to is reflected with the variable “Nazione” (Nationality) in the data spreadsheet, with “1” denoting French and “2” denoting Italian. Selection and Organization of Shared Data The data file included contains all de-identified questionnaire responses. This file contains both the Italian and French responses to the same survey questions, but with slightly different answer formats. For example, for variable “covid_1” (Sei risultato positivo al COVID (una o più volte)? / Have you tested positive for COVID (one or more times)?), the responses of the Italian students are captured as “Si” (Yes) and “No” (No), while those of the French students are captured as “1” and “2”. The correspondent categories can be found in the full questionnaire, which is shared (in Italian) as a documentation file. In the spreadsheet, lack of answers because of skip pattern is distinguished from answers that the respondent chose not to provide. The other documentation file included is the recruitment email / consent script used (in English, French and Italian).

IntroductionLarge-scale diagnostic testing has been proven insufficient to promptly monitor the spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019. Electronic resources may provide better insight into the early detection of epidemics. We aimed to retrospectively explore whether the Google search volume has been useful in detecting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus outbreaks early compared to the swab-based surveillance system.MethodsThe Google Trends website was used by applying the research to three Italian regions (Lombardy, Marche, and Sicily), covering 16 million Italian citizens. An autoregressive-moving-average model was fitted, and residual charts were plotted to detect outliers in weekly searches of five keywords. Signals that occurred during periods labelled as free from epidemics were used to measure Positive Predictive Values and False Negative Rates in anticipating the epidemic wave occurrence.ResultsSignals from “fever,” “cough,” and “sore throat” showed better performance than those from “loss of smell” and “loss of taste.” More than 80% of true epidemic waves were detected early by the occurrence of at least an outlier signal in Lombardy, although this implies a 20% false alarm signals. Performance was poorer for Sicily and Marche.ConclusionMonitoring the volume of Google searches can be a valuable tool for early detection of respiratory infectious disease outbreaks, particularly in areas with high access to home internet. The inclusion of web-based syndromic keywords is promising as it could facilitate the containment of COVID-19 and perhaps other unknown infectious diseases in the future.

As of March 1, 2023, the total number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Algeria reached 271,448. Overall, the growth in the number of cases slowed down considerably from March 2022, also thanks to successful vaccination efforts in the country.

The pandemic in Algeria

The first case of COVID-19 in Algeria was confirmed in February 2020, when a man coming from Italy tested positive for the virus. Afterward, the virus spread rapidly in the country, causing the first deaths in March 2020. Overall, Algeria recorded a total of around 7,000 deaths, one of the highest mortality registered in Africa. Similar to the rest of the world, the Algerian government adopted measures to prevent the spread of the virus. These included partial and total lockdown, the closure of gyms, recreational areas, and beaches.

Vaccination campaign

Algeria officially started the vaccination campaign at the end of January 2021. After a slow start, the total number of vaccine doses administered began to grow considerably. Despite the acceleration of the campaign, the vaccination rate remained below the African average. The country obtained COVID-19 vaccines from different sources, namely from bilateral agreements as well as through the United Nations-led COVAX, an initiative aiming at delivering vaccines against COVID-19 to all countries worldwide.

ObjectiveThe study aimed to investigate perceptions and determinants of the overall impact on life and work domains among a community of knowledge workers after 18 months of forced work from home due to the pandemic.MethodsA cross-sectional study with a retrospective assessment was conducted early in 2022 at the National Research Council of Italy. Five single-item questions explored the perceived impact on life domain while a 7-item scale the impact on the work domain. Bivariate analyses and multivariate regressions were used to evaluate the associations between impacts and some key factors defined by 29 ad hoc closed questions.ResultsMore than 95% of the 748 respondents reported a perceived change in at least one item of the life domain. For each of these items, although a large group of subjects has reported that working from home had no impact (from 27 to 55%), in the rest of the sample the positive evaluation (from 30 to 60%) clearly prevailed over the negative one. Overall, most of the subjects (64%) rated the impact on the work experience positively. Relationship with colleagues and participation in the work context were the items where the greatest number of negative rates was concentrated (27 and 25%, respectively). On the other hand, positive perceptions prevailed over both negative perceptions and lack of impact perceptions on the subjects of organizational flexibility and quality of work. The frequency of work-room sharing, home-work commute time and changes in sedentary lifestyle, have been identified as common explanatory factors of perceived impacts on both domains.ConclusionOverall, respondents reported positive rather than negative perceived impacts of forced work from home in both their lives and work. The obtained results suggest that policies to promote the physical and mental health of employees, strengthen inclusion and maintain a sense of community are necessary to improve workers' health and prevent the effects of perceived isolation on research activities.

Background and aimPatients with interstitial lung diseases, including asbestosis, showed high susceptibility to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and a high risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms. Italy, highly impacted by asbestos-related diseases, in 2020 was among the European countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases. The mortality related to malignant mesotheliomas and asbestosis in 2020 and its relationship with COVID-19 in Italy are investigated.MethodsAll death certificates involving malignant mesotheliomas or asbestosis in 2010–2020 and those involving COVID-19 in 2020 were retrieved from the National Registry of Causes of Death. Annual mortality rates and rate ratios (RRs) of 2020 and 2010–2014 compared to 2015–2019 were calculated. The association between malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and asbestosis with COVID-19 in deceased adults ≥80 years old was evaluated through a logistic regression analysis (odds ratios: ORs), using MPM and asbestosis deaths COVID-19-free as the reference group. The hospitalization for asbestosis in 2010–2020, based on National Hospital Discharge Database, was analyzed.ResultsIn 2020, 746,343 people died; out of them, 1,348 involved MPM and 286 involved asbestosis. Compared to the period 2015–2019, the mortality involving the two diseases decreased in age groups below 80 years; meanwhile, an increasing trend was observed in subjects aged 80 years and older, with a relative mortality risks of 1.10 for MPM and 1.17 for asbestosis. In subjects aged ≥80 years, deaths with COVID-19 were less likely to have MPM in both genders (men: OR = 0.22; women: OR = 0.44), while no departure was observed for asbestosis. A decrease in hospitalization in 2020 with respect to those in 2010–2019 in all age groups, both considering asbestosis as the primary or secondary diagnosis, was observed.ConclusionsThe increasing mortality involving asbestosis and, even if of slight entity, MPM, observed in people aged over 80 years during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, aligned in part with the previous temporal trend, could be due to several factors. Although no positive association with COVID-19 mortality was observed, the decrease in hospitalizations for asbestosis among individuals aged over 80 years, coupled with the increase in deaths, highlights the importance of enhancing home-based assistance during the pandemic periods for vulnerable patients with asbestos-related conditions.

This record contains raw data related to article “Low Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in Patients with Solid Tumours on Active Treatment: An Observational Study at a Tertiary Cancer Centre in Lombardy, Italy"

Background: The incidence and prognosis of SARS-CoV-2-positive cancer patients on active oncologic treatment remain unknown. Retrospective data from China reported higher incidence and poorer outcomes with respect to the general population. We aimed to describe the real-word incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients and the impact of oncologic therapies on the infection. Materials & Methods: In this study, we analysed all consecutive cancer patients with solid tumours undergoing active intravenous treatment (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, alone or in combination) between 21 February and 30 April 2020, in a high-volume cancer centre in Lombardy, Italy. We focused on SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, reporting on the clinical characteristics of the cancer and the infection. Results: We registered 17 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients among 1267 cancer patients on active treatment, resulting in an incidence of 1.3%. The median age was 69.5 years (range 43-79). Fourteen patients (82%) required hospitalisation for COVID-19 with a median in-hospital stay of 11.5 days (range 3-58). Fourteen of the seventeen (82%) were treated for locally advanced or metastatic disease. We could not demonstrate any correlation between SARS-CoV-2 infection and tumour or treatment type. The COVID-19-related fatality rate was 29% (5/17), which was higher than that of the general population cared for in our centre (20%). Conclusions: Active oncologic treatments do not represent a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection in cancer patients. However, the prognosis of infected cancer patients appears to be worse compared with that of the non-oncologic population. Given the low number of SARS-CoV-2-positive cases and the uncertainties in risk factors that may have an impact on the prognosis, we advocate for the continuum of cancer care even during the current pandemic.

BackgroundAt the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, support for breastfeeding was disrupted in many countries. Italy was severely impacted by the pandemic and is known to have the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate of all European countries. Considering the inverse association between anxiety and breastfeeding, maternal concerns about the COVID-19 emergency could reduce breastfeeding rates. The aim of the study is to explore the association between infant feeding practices and maternal COVID-19 concerns.MethodsThis paper is a secondary analysis of the cross-sectional study COVID-ASSESS conducted in Italy in 2020. The original survey was administered in two phases: during the first lockdown and during the reopening. The survey included five sections: socio-demographic, medical history, concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, infant feeding practices and psychometric evaluation. Participants were considered eligible for the post-hoc analyses if they were exclusively breastfeeding or they were feeding with infant formula (either alone or with breastfeeding) at the time of the interview.ResultsBetween phase 1 and phase 2 there was a decrease in anxiety and concerns about the danger of COVID-19 to general health, except for concerns about their baby's health. Women using formula were more concerned about all the health topics investigated. Moreover, they showed higher levels of stress, state anxiety, somatization and PTSD symptoms.ConclusionBreastfeeding during the first pandemic lockdown in Italy seems to have been an independent factor associated with lower anxiety about COVID-19, fewer psychopathological symptoms, and a positive experience of infant feeding.

As of March 1, 2023, Tunisia had registered around 1.15 million confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) since the beginning of the pandemic.

How the pandemic developed in Tunisia

The first case of COVID-19 in Tunisia was registered at the beginning of March 2020, when a Tunisian man tested positive for the virus after returning from Italy. Almost two years later, the country recorded a peak of 19,923 daily cases on January 22, 2022. The cumulative number of deaths was getting closer to 30,000 as of the end of 2022. Despite the relatively small size of the Tunisian population, the country is among the African nations with the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19. Tunisia started the vaccination campaign in March 2021, reaching one of the highest vaccination rates in Africa.

Strong economic and business impact

Similar to the rest of the world, the Tunisian economy was hit by the pandemic. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by around 20 percent in the second quarter of 2020, and all economic sectors were heavily impacted. Moreover, there were also implications for businesses and employment. Most enterprises registered a decline in sales in 2020, and reduced business activities significantly affected the labor market. According to a survey conducted in March 2021, the Tunisian population was more worried about the country's economy than the health situation. In fact, the pandemic considerably affected Tunisian households, contributing to increasing the poverty levels in the country.