Since COVID-19 morbidity and mortality are strongly dependent on the presence of concomitant serious diseases, Italy with its high proportion of patients with history of smoking and heart disease, has been particularly vulnerable, the researchers said.
Another factor linked to high mortality rates in Italy is the increased burden of cases that presented themselves to the health care system, they wrote in their analysis.

“India does not have sufficient public health care infrastructure to combat a pandemic like COVID-19 and as a last resort India needs to take help of private health care sector,” the plea said.

A new study examining air samples from hospital wards with Covid-19 patients has found the virus can travel up to 13 feet (four meters) — twice the distance current guidelines say people should leave between themselves in public.

The deadliest epidemic of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola broke out in West Africa in December 2013 and lasted more than two years, killing more than 11,300 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The pandemic is almost sure to leave a mark on the way people work, shop and socialize, perhaps permanently shifting the way many service industries operate. Consumers will think harder about the health implications of squeezing into crowded restaurants and movie theaters. More businesses will accept the effectiveness of employees who work from home, and the move to online shopping will accelerate

Patients “look fine, feel fine, then you turn around and they’re unresponsive,” said Diana Torres, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the center of the nation’s worst outbreak. “I’m paranoid, scared to walk out of their room.”

In New York, where museums and galleries have shuttered and art-lined apartments and townhouses stand empty, some are taking added precautions. Jordan Arnold, head of art risk advisory services at K2 Intelligence FIN, said he’s had numerous conversations recently with clients about security concerns. Lawyer Thomas Danziger said one client, a jeweler, has removed everything from the store in case of theft. Others have put their artwork into storage.

The WHO said that calls for the public to wear masks in the fight against the virus can be justified when other measures like hand-washing and physical distancing are difficult.