Italy’s Covid-19 Front-Line Workers
Clockwise, from top left: Casati, Fagiuoli, Rizzi, Ferrari, Lorini, and Stasi.
Photographer: Giulio Ghirardi for Bloomberg Businessweek
When the coronavirus hit the West, the hospital workers of Northern Italy waged the beachhead battles. Among the hardest hit hospitals was Papa Giovanni. On Feb. 21, the day it recorded its first Covid-19 case, it had 48 beds for infectious disease patients and an intensive-care unit with only eight. Within weeks, Papa Giovanni was housing about 550 Covid patients, including 100 in an expanded ICU. As sickened Italians overwhelmed the emergency room, the virus spread among staff. About 400 out of 4,500 workers at the hospital and nearby satellite facilities fell ill.
Italy’s national doctors’ guild has tallied more than 200 dead; countless nurses, cleaners, and food-service workers have also lost their lives. Globally, during the first wave, about 14% of Covid-19 cases were among medical workers, according to the World Health Organization.