I CERTAINLY HOPE THIS IS RIGHT, BECAUSE THE NUMBERS ARE HORRENDOUS: Why have so many coronavirus patients died in Italy? The country’s high death toll is due to an ageing population, overstretched health system and the way fatalities are reported. “On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 per cent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 per cent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity – many had two or three.”