Walking into the intensive care unit at the Oglio Po hospital in Cremona on Thursday (March 19) was like walking onto the front line of a war against an invisible enemy.
The sound of ventilators forcing oxygen into patients and the beeping of medical equipment filled the air as patients with coronavirus lay immobile on their beds. Medical staff wearing green or blue protective suits, goggles and masks moved around the beds checking on patients battling the coronavirus.
The whole hospital has been given over to treating coronavirus patients. Before there were fifty beds in the hospital, now 120 beds have been given over to treating infected patients. More are needed. Doctors say some twenty percent of the medical staff here have now been infected.
Some of the patients are able to sit up and gesticulate to nursing staff despite wearing masks to help with breathing. Others, lay on their fronts connected to machines, the only way they can continue to breath.
Italy recorded the largest ever one-day increase in coronavirus deaths on Wednesday (March 18) as the total rose by 475 to almost 3,000. There were more than 300 deaths in the region of Lombardy alone and the medical teams are buckling under the load.
The country went into virtual lockdown before other countries in Europe but, with cases still rising, the government is considering even tougher measures that would further restrict the limited amount of outdoor movement currently permitted.