Southern Italy's Health System Too Weak To Face Increase In COVID-19 Cases - Ex-Minister

GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2020) Southern Italy's health system is not prepared to face an increase in COVID-19 cases, as it has been weakened by the government's spending cuts, Italy's former minister of health, Girolamo Sirchia, told Sputnik in an interview.

So far, Italy's north, in particular the Lombardy region, has been hit hardest by the disease. Confirmed cases in the southern regions � to the south of the Lazio region � amount only to 6.5 percent of the total cases, according to the health ministry's data.

"In many places, no," Sirchia, who dealt with the SARS epidemic as health minister back in 2003, said when asked if health facilities in the south were prepared to cope with a potential increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases.

The health facilities in the south have suffered from the "criminal policy of spending cuts," according to the ex-minister.

"The southern health system, which has been had difficulties already for a long time, continues to be so because there is no investment, no staff preparation, no equipment. For 10 years we have had blocks on staff turnover. There has been no investment in staff upgrading, no staff motivation. We had even closed numerous places for specializations, so the number of doctors and nurses has dramatically reduced ... We found ourselves in a perfect storm with an ongoing epidemic for which we were not prepared, lacking personnel, facilities and equipment," Sirchia said.

On Monday, Italy has registered 1,648 new cases and 812 deaths over the past 24 hours, according to the Civil Protection Department. The total number of cases that the country has had since the beginning of the outbreak is 101,739, and the death toll is at 11,597.