ROME: Italy will rush 10,000 student doctors into service, scrapping their final exams, in an effort to help the struggling health service cope with the coronavirus which claimed another 345 lives.
Lombardy's health chief said it was vital that the Milanese strictly observe all the curbs on movement laid down by the government"to prevent the contagion growing much more strongly in a very populous area like Milan". The graduates will be sent to work in general practitioners' clinics and at old peoples' homes, freeing up more experienced colleagues who will be sent to the rapidly filling hospitals.Over three weeks, 1,135 people have needed intensive care in Lombardy, the northern region hardest hit. The region has only 800 intensive care beds, according to Giacomo Grasselli, head of the intensive care unit at Milan's Policlinico hospital.
In Genoa, authorities are transforming a ferry into a hospital boat that they hope will be ready by Thursday.