摘要：In February 2020, Italy has been the first country in Europe fighting against COVID-19. In March 2020, Italian government declared national lockdown. Until May 4
th, people stayed in home confinement and only the so-called
essential works and activities were continued. Like in other countries, both for the disease severity and for the risk of death, the higher the age of people the higher the risk. In the first months of 2020, Italy saw a very high number of deaths related to COVID-19, with a huge age effect. There is an agreement on the view that there had been also an excess of mortality and on the role of mortality as a correct way to reflect the dynamics of the virus’s spread. In this paper we briefly discuss the trends of mortality during the first 4 months of 2020 according to the data by the Italian National Institute of Statistics.
Significance for public health
Data on mortality and on excess of mortality during pandemic are critical to be investigated as there is an agreement on their role in the understanding of the dynamic of pandemic. The paper shows differences in Italy: while some regions showed an excess of mortality, other regions did not show differences. The paper discusses possible reasons for the excess of mortality (high pressure on Italian public health system during the acute phase of pandemic could have had the indirect effect of increase other causes of death, like the ones related to other disorders or diseases for which individuals had difficulty to access to care during the more critical phases of pandemic. From an intervention perspective, it proposes some practical suggestions for planning and implementing specific interventions during current and future steps of the COVID-19 Pandemic, aiming to prevent excess of deaths.
