Italy’s death toll surpasses China’s

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An intensive care unit at a hospital in Brescia, Italy Associated Press/Photo by Claudio Furlan/LaPresse

Despite having less than one-twentieth the population of China, Italy has seen more deaths from COVID-19. More than 3,400 people have succumbed to the disease in Italy, a country of 60 million people. China, which has a population of about 1.4 billion, had 3,248 deaths as of Friday.

How did this happen? The leader of a delegation from the Chinese Red Cross scolded Italians for not complying with the national lockdown. On a visit to Milan, Sun Shuopeng said the number of people using public transport and eating out in hotels shocked him. “Right now we need to stop all economic activity, and we need to stop the mobility of people,” he said. “All people should be staying at home in quarantine.”

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report about the devastation the pandemic has caused in Italy.

Lynde Langdon

Lynde is WORLD’s executive editor for news. She is a graduate of World Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Lynde resides with her family in Wichita, Kan.

@lmlangdon