Launched TUESDAY April 7, 2020 on www.zReportage.com Story #731: Italy's Frontline Heroes: In just over a month, the death toll in Italy from the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed 10,000 and Italy's total number of COVID-19 cases has topped 100,000. The epicenter of the crisis has been the northern region of Lombardy, where nearly 6,000 people have died. In one 24 hour period, between the Lombard cities of Bergamo, Brescia and Milan, there were 542 new deaths. The doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in Italy are real heroes fighting daily with masks goggles and gowns their only barrier against the contagion. So far, more than 7,100 healthcare workers around the country have been infected with Covid19. They are sorely missed, and their absence brings more work for those still standing. More than 50 doctors never recovered and are counted among the victims. These heroes of Italy's pandemic are not just treating the sick with respirators and oxygen. They are standing in for sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, who under normal circumstances would be able to visit, hold the hands of sick loved ones and offer a word of encouragement. Giacomo Ghilardi, the mayor of Cinisello a small town outside Milan, and hard-hit by the pandemic said 'Today is like many other days over the past month, days where I find myself mourning our fellow citizens. We will remember everybody. All our loved ones, friends, family, acquaintances.... But soon, we will wipe away our tears, we will get up, we will smile again and we will remember. That I promise you.'
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A pharmacy worker holds medicine for sale through a hole in the door entrance during the Coronavirus Covid 19 emergency.
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Workers carry a sick patient at an elderly center at La Casa di Mela, a retirement home for the elderly, where many elderly people were found positive to Covid-19 Coronavirus.
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A health care worker on the street with an ambulance behind her at Florence Piazza Duomo during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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A doctor collects biomaterial from a suspected 2019-nCoV patient at Cremona's hospital during the COVID-19 Coronavirus emergency.
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Doctors and nurses at work in the Intensive Care Unit of the Poliambulanza Institute Hospital Foundationa during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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Doctors and nurses at work in the Intensive Care Unit of Cremona's hospital during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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Doctors and nurses at work in the Intensive Care Unit of Cremona's hospital during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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The sports gym of Ponte San Pietro Hospital in Ponte San Pietro in the Province of Bergamo is used as a mortuary. Ponte San Pietro is the area where the highest number of infection of COVID19 Coronavirus were recorded.
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Workers push coffins into the mortuary of Ponte San Pietro Hospital in Ponte San Pietro in the Province of Bergamo is the area where the highest number of infection of COVID19 Coronavirus were recorded
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Catholic priest Father FRANCESCO GRAVINO, has climbed onto the terrace of Santa Maria della Salute church in Naples to pray near the Jesus crucifix and to be close to his faithful during coronavirus emergency days during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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Italian Amy soldiers, medical staff and Carabinieri transport the coffins of coronavirus victims with a column of six military trucks from a depot in Ponte San Pietro. Ponte San Pietro in the Province of Bergamo is the area where the highest number of infection of COVID19 Coronavirus were recorded.
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Parish priest Don MARCELLO CROTTI, blesses 90 coffins of covid 19 victims inside the San Giuseppe church in Seriate before being transporterd to a crematorium Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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March 17, 2020, Brescia , Italy; Heath Care workers record the body temperature at Spedali Civili hospital of Brescia during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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March 2, 2020, Cremona, Italy, A doctor collects biomaterial from suspected 2019-nCoV patients at Cremona's hospital during the COVID-19 Coronavirus emergency.
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Ambulance workers transfer new patients infected with Coronavirus at the Emergency room of the Maggiore Hospital of Lodi.
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Carabinieri police deliver oxygen cylinders to the pharmacies in Bergamo during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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Hospital workers push a patient in a wheelchair during the Coronavirus emergency at Spedali Civil Hospital.
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A hospital worker walks at the patient acceptance tent in front of the emergency room of the Cremona Hospital during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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People have lunch while keeping at least two meters from each other at Mensa Ca' Letizia canteen for the poorest in Mestre in precaution against the coronavirus outbreak.
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A doctor visits an elderly woman in quarantine during the Coronavirus Covid-19 emergency.
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Coffins of COVID-19 victims are lined up in Ponte San Pietro, province of Bergamo during the Coronavirus COVID-19 emergency.
© Matteo Biatta/Fotogramma/ROPI via ZUMA Press
