Coronavirus deaths in Italy rose by 368 overnight to bring the total to 1,809, while 24,747 people have tested positive for the deadly bug.
Italian officials confirmed the jump today, as the national lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte earlier this month rumbles on another week.
The shocking development comes as chilling footage shows the obituary of one local newspaper expanding from a single page to 10.
In the video, a man speaking Italian zooms in on the front page of L’Eco di Bergamo that circulates in the city in the hard-hit Lombardy region.
After showing the date of the paper – February 9 – he turns to the obituaries to reveal a page and a half of death notices published. On that date, Italy had recorded just three confirmed cases of Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
He then holds up an edition of the same newspaper from March 13, when the total number of cases had skyrocketed to 17,600, including 1,266 deaths.
Slowly turning the pages and counting, he shows 10 full pages of obituaries, highlighting the horrific impact of the infection.
It comes as a secret document prepared by a crisis management unit in Turin suggested that victims will be denied access to intensive care if they are aged over 80 or in poor health as pressures on bed numbers increase.
The virus has battered Europe, with Italy, the worst-hit European country, seeing the number of deaths climb to 1,441 and infections surging overnight to more than 21,000 because of what authorities characterized as irresponsible behavior by people still socializing despite the nationwide lockdown.
God help us!