Emergency rooms in Italian hospitals being 'pushed to their limits'

Emergency rooms in Italian hospitals were being "pushed to their limits" by the rising tide of Covid-19 and influenza infections as colder weather sweeps across the country, health authorities said.

"The critical situations are no longer limited to specific areas, but are widespread," Fabio De Iaco, president of the Italian Society for Emergency Medicine (SIMEU), was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday.

"The number of people accessing emergency rooms has increased by around 50 per cent compared to what we saw in September," he added.

Meanwhile, the Gimbe Foundation, a health sector monitoring group, said on Monday that while the number of Covid-19 deaths in Italy remained relatively low, it was inching higher.

Deaths from Covid-19 increased by around 8 per cent over the period of December 2nd to 8th compared to the previous seven-day period.

The foundation also reported that vaccination rates slowed to record lows.

Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Italy has so far recorded a total of 24,709,404 Covid-19 cases and 182,419 deaths.