COVID-19 in Italy: An Analysis of Death Registry Data.
J Public Health (Oxf)
; 42(4): 723-730, 2020 11 23.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-772654
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
There are still many unknowns about COVID-19. We do not know its exact mortality rate nor the speed through which it spreads across communities. This lack of evidence complicates the design of appropriate response policies.METHODS:
We source daily death registry data for 4100 municipalities in Italy's north and match them to Census data. We augment the dataset with municipality-level data on a host of co-factors of COVID-19 mortality, which we exploit in a differences-in-differences regression model to analyze COVID-19-induced mortality.RESULTS:
We find that COVID-19 killed more than 0.15% of the local population during the first wave of the epidemic. We also show that official statistics vastly underreport this death toll, by about 60%. Next, we uncover the dramatic effects of the epidemic on nursing home residents in the outbreak epicenter in municipalities with a high share of the elderly living in nursing homes, COVID-19 mortality was about twice as high as in those with no nursing home intown.CONCLUSIONS:
A pro-active approach in managing the epidemic is key to reduce COVID-19 mortality. Authorities should ramp-up testing capacity and increase contact-tracing abilities. Adequate protective equipment should be provided to nursing home residents and staff.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Registries
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
J Public Health (Oxf)
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Pubmed
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