För de som fortfarande lever i en uppfattning att det är bara är som en vanlig influensa:
This, however, is already behind the curve, with the ITV website reporting on feeds that were being aired yesterday on Twitter. It cites a doctor identified as Martina Crivellari, an intensive care cardiac anaesthesiologist at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.
She says: "There are a lot of young people in our Intensive Care Units (ICUs) - our youngest is a 38-year-old who had had no comorbidities (underlying health problems)". Adding that there are, "A lot of patients need help with breathing", she complains that there are not enough ventilators.
"They've told us", she then says, "that starting from now we'll have to choose who to intubate - priority will go to the young or those without comorbidities. At Niguarda, the other big hospital in Milan, they are not intubating anyone over 60, which is really, really young".
Another, unidentified doctor, who works at Niguarda Hospital, says, "We have closed down entire wards, and reduced the number of beds in traditional wards. All operations have been cancelled, GP surgeries closed so the that the GPs can come in and be ward doctors".
He then tells us: "The number of ICU beds has been tripled. There was even pressure to take over our Cardiac ICU. All the resuscitation bays are full. They're having to triage, deciding who to intubate and who to let die".
