Published: 24 March 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
A letter from Italy's coronavirus epicentre: 'coffins pile up in churches, people in their 80s die alone' (Haaretz)
Gideon Levy: “I thought it would interest you to read my letter, since you loved my city so much,” Rosita Poloni wrote me earlier this week. She’s a social worker and a peace activist from the city in Italy that’s been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic.
Bergamo is a city of about 120,000, planted on a Lombardy hilltop between Verona and Milan. Here’s what Rosita wrote me this week: “Something like 319 people died yesterday [Rosita’s figures are updated to March 18] in my district of Lombardy. There were 330 deaths during the last week, compared to 23 in the same week in March last year.
“To give you an idea, the local newspaper usually publishes two pages of death announcements every day, and now there are 10.”
Israeli doctor in Italy: We no longer help those over 60 (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli medical doctor Gai Peleg told Israeli television that in northern Italy the orders are not to allow those over 60 access to respiratory machines
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As virus spreads, US officials struggle to halt ultra-Orthodox gatherings (Times of Israel)
Brooklyn neighbourhoods with large Haredi populations hit hard by COVID-19, but some parts of community still defying social distancing orders
Photo: Cemetery workers transport a coffin into a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy, March 16 (Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters)
