On Monday, Italy placed its 60 million residents under lockdown, as the number of cases of the COVID-19 virus throughout the country continues to rise. The nationwide lockdown is expected to have major economic repercussions on the country, where growth was already stagnating. While the government has not specified exactly how long the ban will last, it says it will remain in place until April 3.
周一，由于全国范围内新冠肺炎病例持续增加，意大利封锁了其6000万居民。预计意大利封国的措施将对其已经停滞增长的经济产生重大影响。尽管政府没有具体说明封锁将持续多长时间，但它表示至少会持续到4月3日。
Here is how the virus spread across the country — and why it is so much worse in Italy than any other European country:
这篇文章解释了新冠病毒是如何在意大利传开的，以及为什么意大利的疫情比任何其他欧洲国家都严重得多：
Officially it began in Feb. 20, when a 38-year-old man checked himself into a local hospital in the town of Codogno in Lombardy. He tested positive with the virus, becoming the first recorded patient with the COVID-19 virus in Italy.
根据官方的说法，首例病例出现于2月20日，当时一名38岁的男子在伦巴第的Codogno镇上接受了当地医院的检查，结果发现检测呈阳性，于是他成为意大利的首例确诊患者。
Yet some health officials believe that the virus arrived in Italy long before the first case was discovered. “The virus had probably beencirculating for quite some time,” Flavia Riccardo, a researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health tells TIME. “This happened right when we were having our peak of influenza and people were presenting with influenza symptoms.”
然而，一些卫生官员认为，这种病毒早在发现首例病例之前就已经到达了意大利。意大利国家卫生研究院传染病学系研究员弗拉维亚·里卡多说：“病毒可能已经传播了一段时间，而且正好是在流感达到高峰并且人们出现流感症状时发生的。”
Before the first case was reported, there was an unusually high number of pneumonia cases recorded at a hospital in Codogno in northern Italy, the head of the emergency ward Stefano Paglia told the newspaper La Repubblica, suggesting it is possible patients with the virus were treated as if they had a seasonal flu. Health facilities hosting these patients could have become sites for infection, helping proliferate the spread of the virus.
在首例病例被确诊前，意大利北部科多诺的一家医院记录了异常多的肺炎病例，急诊病房负责人史蒂芬诺·帕格里亚负责人告诉《共和报》，暗示感染冠状病毒的患者可能被当成了季节性流感去治疗。接纳这些患者的医疗机构可能已经被病毒感染了，从而有助于病毒的扩散。
Because the virus spread undetected, some officials believe this is the reason for such a high number of cases in the country. “This started unnoticed which means by the time we realized it, there were a lot of transmission chains happening,” Riccardo says.
一些官员认为，该病毒在传播时未被发现，这是该国病例如此多的原因。里卡多说：“这开始时没有引起人们的注意，这意味着当我们意识到时，已经出现了许多条传播轨迹。”
Some officials also believe Italy, which has already tested over 42, 000 people, may have a higher number of cases as a result of performing morerigorous tests than their European counterparts. “This could be a bias,” Lorenzo Casani, the health director of a clinic for elderly people in Lombardy told TIME. “Look at how many tests we are doing!”
一些官员还认为，意大利已经对42000多人进行了测试，而且测试比其他欧洲国家更加严格，这也可能是意大利病例多的原因。伦巴第老年人诊所的卫生主管洛伦佐·卡萨尼告诉《时代》杂志：“很可能会出现偏差，看看我们现在进行了多少检测！”
Italy, however, is also reporting an above averagemortality rate at 4%. The average age of coronavirus patients who have died because of the virus in Italy is 81, according to the National Health Institute. Italy could be facing a higher mortality rate as a result of its above-average elderly population. “Italy is the oldest country in the oldestcontinent in the world,” Casani says. “We have a lot of people over 65.”
不过，意大利的死亡率也高于平均值4％。根据国家卫生研究所的数据，在意大利死于该病毒的冠状病毒的患者的平均年龄为81岁。由于意大利老年人口数量高于平均水平，因此可能会面临更高的死亡率。卡萨尼说：“意大利是世界上最古老的大陆上最古老的国家。我们这有很多65岁以上的人。”
Casani says that pollution in northern Italy could be a factor in higher death rates. According to a report by the Swiss air monitoring platform IQAir, 24 of Europe’s 100 most polluted cities are in Italy. “Studies have shown a high correlation between mortality rates from viral respiratory conditions and pollution,” Casani says. “This could be a factor.”
卡萨尼说，意大利北部的空气污染可能是死亡率较高的一个因素。根据瑞士空气监测平台IQAir的一份报告，欧洲100个污染最严重的城市中有24个在意大利。卡萨尼说：“研究表明，病毒性呼吸道疾病造成的死亡率与空气污染存在高度相关。这可能是一个因素。”
网友评论