Video shows obituaries filling up Italian newspapers every day as the coronavirus continues to spread

  • In northern Italy, the region that has been hit hardest by the new coronavirus, the amount of obituaries posted in the local newspaper has more than doubled.
  • In a viral video posted to Twitter, one man pages through an Italian regional newspaper, showing the 10 pages of obituaries.
  • In Italy, there have been over 27,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 2,100 deaths.
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A video of one man thumbing through a regional newspaper in northern Italy shows that the obituary section, which consisted of one-and-a-half pages in February, was 10 pages long by mid-March, due to the spread of COVID-19.

In Italy, the country's 60 million residents, daily life has ground to a halt, and all churches, temples, bars, and restaurants are closed, and there have been more 27,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,100 deaths.

The impact of the virus was laid bare in a video posted by journalist David Carretta, which quickly went viral as people sent their condolences.

L'eco di Bergamo is an Italian daily newspaper that caters to the northern region, which has been one of the areas most devastated by the virus. In Bergamo, undertakers are overloaded, and many family members are missing their loved ones' funerals due to the lockdown. One crematorium is working 24 hours a day, and there's a waiting list for funeral services.

"Hello dear friends, this is to give you an idea of how we are positioned," the man says in Italian in the video. "L'eco di Bergamo, February 9: one page, and a bit more. Today, Friday, March 13: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10. A simple flu."

Another video posted by Italian newspaper Il Messaggero showed coffins lined up in a church.

Italy is, to date, the country hardest-hit by the new coronavirus, after China. Currently Italy's healthcare system is overwhelmed, with doctors working shifts that are four or five days long, facing difficult questions about whose care to prioritize first. Some doctors have chosen to prioritize younger patients over older ones with pre-existing conditions.

"The choice is made inside of an emergency room used for mass events, where only COVID-19 patients enter," one anesthesiologist told an Italian daily. "If a person is between 80 and 95 and has severe respiratory failure, he probably won't make it."

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