Coronavirus: in Italy, controversy in a hard-hit retirement home

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Italy is close to 30,000 dead. The number of new infections is on the decline and the decline continues. But in Lombardy, epicenter of the epidemic and where half of the new cases are concentrated, a controversy erupted around the management of a retirement and rest home, Pio Albergo Trivulzio, in Milan. Over the two months of March and April, nearly 200 residents died in this establishment of nearly a thousand people.

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With our special correspondent in Italy, Pauline Gleize

“  His physical conditions were perfect. In a month and ten days, they destroyed it and killed me.  Fabbio Scottà tells date after date: his mother's roommate who dies after having a fever, contradictory information on the state of health of his own 88-year-old mother and the Covid test returned positive three days after her death. He has been a member of the Truth and Justice Committee for victims of the Trivulzio since.

"  We have heard it said several times and even from politicians that they are old, that it is inevitable," laments Fabio Scottà. But no, it is not inevitable. For us, what happened is unacceptable.  "

Controversial transfer of around twenty patients

Unacceptable also for Piero Lagrassa, representative of the CGIL union in Trivulzio: “Almost  everywhere people had masks and not us !! I got it on April 2.  "

The transfer of around twenty patients from a hospital to the residence is also causing controversy. "  We were told that we were not sending Covid patients," says Piero Lagrassa. But after about four days, two of them had symptoms. I can't say they had Covid, but it all started there.  "

In defense of the establishment, his supervisor, Fabrizio Pregliasco, brandished the figures during a press conference. “  In April, there was a 135% increase in mortality in Milan. At Pio Albergo Trivulzio, the increase was 61%.  "

The measures taken were adequate, says the supervisor of the retirement home. The ongoing investigation should determine this.

► Read also: Coronavirus: the ordeal of Italy, which has lost so many grandparents

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