Hidden victims may add 6000 to Italy’s coronavirus death toll
As systems across Europe measuring coronavirus fatalities are scrutinised, there are claims Italy has a devastating hidden death toll.
Italy has underestimated its coronavirus death toll by a third, or more than 6000 people, a researcher has claimed as systems across Europe used to measure fatalities come under scrutiny.
“For every two sufferers in Italy there is another one you can’t see,” Matteo Villa, of the Italian Institute for Political Studies, said.
According to official figures there have been more than 13,000 fatalities in Italy, but thousands who die of the virus at home or in care homes are not counted because they are not being tested, Mr Villa said.
They are, however, showing up in overall death records for last month, which have risen on previous years. Mr Villa said that the difference was “mostly attributable to the virus”, adding: “Some of the increase will be people who die of other illnesses because they cannot find a hospital bed due to the crisis, but that will be partly offset by the decline in road fatalities due to Italy’s lockdown.”
Records released by town halls in Bergamo, at the heart of the outbreak, reveal that the number of uncounted virus deaths may be even higher than Mr Villa’s estimate. The northern province, which has a population of 1.1 million, officially registered 2060 virus deaths last month yet total deaths rose by 4500, more than double that.
This would equate to a mortality rate of 18 per cent for sufferers, far higher than the 9 per cent seen in the UK. The explanation may be that Italy’s count of more than 110,000 cases is also short of the mark, with estimates of the real number ranging from 400,000 to six million.
On Thursday Italy registered 760 deaths over the previous 24 hours, taking the official total to 13,915.
In Spain, Alba Verges, the Catalan health minister, has admitted that the region’s death toll could be higher as only sufferers diagnosed in hospital are counted. He said that officials were trying to obtain more complete figures from funeral homes.
The mayor of the Catalan town of Igualada said that 140 people had died in his area last month, double the figure last year, but only 40 were officially listed as coronavirus fatalities. He attributed the gap to a lack of testing.
Spanish opposition politicians have accused the government of deliberately hiding the real toll. This was denied by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the interior minister.
French officials admit that their country’s death toll, of 4032 on April 1, is an underestimate because it only includes those registered in hospital. The discrepancy has brought claims of a government plot to reduce the death toll artificially.
The French government said that at least 884 people had died of coronavirus in nursing homes since the start of the epidemic, adding that this was likely to be a significant underestimate.
Jerome Salomon, a senior health official, said the death toll in nursing homes was based on “very partial” figures, suggesting that it could in reality be higher.
Steven Van Gucht, a Belgian virologist and director of the country’s coronavirus crisis centre, said that deaths recorded outside hospitals in Belgium were all being counted, sometimes with no test. “If the doctor suspects it we will include it in our statistics,” he added.
Belgium has recorded almost as many deaths as Germany despite their vastly different population sizes.
From Tom Kington in Rome, Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid, Oliver Moody in Berlin, and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
The Times
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