Italian doctors call for nationwide lockdown amid second COVID-19 outbreak
Nov 09, 2020
Rome [Italy], November 9 (ANI/Sputnik): Italian doctors on Monday urged the authorities to impose a general stay-at-home regime throughout the country to combat the resurgent COVID-19 epidemic, the National Federation of Physicians and Dentists (FNOMCEO) announced on Monday.
"The Order of Doctors is calling for a total lockdown across the country," FNOMCEO wrote on its Facebook account, stressing that the call was prompted by growing numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care and and higher hospitalisation rate.
FNOMCEO President Filippo Anelli said that the country was experiencing shortages of specialised doctors and urged prompt dispatch of 23,000 graduate doctors to their new work places.
"It would be a breath of fresh air," Anelli noted while talking about the need to distribute and appoint doctors to health establishments across Italy.
Last week, the Italian government introduced a nationwide curfew from 10 p.m. [21:00 GMT] to 5 am, ordered for closures of museums, concert halls, cinemas, and reduced work hours of shopping malls, cafes, and restaurants. Besides, the authorities zoned the country's 20 regions into yellow, orange, and red categories with a separate package of virus measures for each of them.
As of Monday, national health authorities have confirmed a total of 935,104 COVID-19 infections and 41,394 related fatalities. (ANI/Sputnik)