San Carlo hospital in Potenza (ospedalesancarlo.it)
March 22, 2020, the whole of Italy has been in full lockdown since a couple of weeks. An invisible monster is mowing down more victims of a world war: it is Covid-19, also known as Coronavirus, which started from Wuhan in China, and progressively has overwhelmed the whole world.
Today Basilicata cries its first victim, an 80-year-old man from Marsicovetere (Potenza), who passed away at the San Carlo hospital in Potenza.
When he arrived at the emergency room of the hospital, his very serious health conditions left no place for any doubt: the man was suffering from a very bad respiratory disease, the typical symptoms of Covid 19. But, to be sure, the swab was carried out which confirmed the suspicions: it was Coronavirus. The man died shortly after.
Despite the commitment of the hospital staff, saving the patient is impossible, simply because it is hard to cure something which origin and evolution are not yet well known.
Unfortunately, many others will follow this first death, mainly of elderly people. And the most grieving thing, besides the completely unnatural grave loss, is that with them a piece of historical memory of the region will go away.
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