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‘No end in sight’: Death, pain and anxiety in Italy’s hospitals…..As Churches Now Turn Into Mortuaries

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It is 5 am and Annalisa Baldi is about to start her shift in a COVID-19 ward at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, in Lombardy.

Wearing her usual uniform and a surgical mask, the 34-year-old nurse heads to the dressing area to prepare.

She thoroughly washes her hands with special sanitizer and puts a protective suit on top of her clothing. She pulls on a pair of gloves.

“Until the end of my shift, these gloves become my skin,” Baldi told Al Jazeera. “I wash and disinfect them any time I can. I also add more layers of gloves throughout the day.”

Two masks – one for her own protection and the other to shield the patients, scuba-diving goggles and a cap complete her armour.

In her ward today, there are 66 people aged between 50 and 70. There are also some younger patients.

“This virus doesn’t only affect elderly people with underlying conditions,” Baldi said, adding that the large hospital is mostly dedicated to the coronavirus emergency.

At 5:30 am, medical personnel bustle about the wards.

Nurses draw blood, check patients’ oxygen levels and deliver medicine, as doctors start first rounds of inspections. Intensive care specialists arrange consultations and X-ray tests proceed at pace.

To avoid contagion, direct contact with patients is avoided where possible.

“One needs to do as much as one can in one go, in their rooms,” Baldi says. “This includes helping patients drink. This might sound a small detail, but when patients wear fixed continuous positive airway pressure [CPAP] devices, spanning helmets and full-face masks, getting a chance to drink is essential.”

italy nurses under pressure

Only patients with a high fever and who need significant levels of oxygen support are currently hospitalised in Italy, where so far 6,820 have died from the virus that has infected 69,176 people.

Besides monitoring high respiratory rates and shortness of breath, medical staff review arterial blood gas tests, which measure the percentage of oxygen in the blood.

A patient’s condition can change immensely in a day.

Oxygen values might drop very fast, requiring intubation. Intubation time for COVID-19 patients is lengthy – 20 days on average.

“This is a new, different patient. Doctors and nurses are outperforming themselves. It is extremely emotional to witness,” said Baldi.

She believes she has probably had coronavirus, like many of her colleagues on the front lines, but that her symptoms were imperceptible.

The percentage of health workers infected in Italy is more than double the number registered throughout the epidemic in China – more than 5,000 since the onset of the outbreak in February, in part due to a shortage of protective equipment.

Public health experts say that if all medics were tested, the actual rate of infection could be so high that it would stop hospitals from functioning.

In Bergamo, at least 6,000 citizens are currently infected, making it Italy’s – and the world’s – worst-hit province in percentage terms.

Hundreds have died there. Ambulance sirens continuously cut through the silence of a city on lockdown.

Bergamo’s vast Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital has the largest intensive care unit (ICU) in Europe.

Roberto Cosentini, the hospital’s first-aid coordinator, has said the pandemic feels like a “viral earthquake”.

“It is like we had a new telluric shock every day, with scores of new patients suffering simultaneously. Now the difficulty is to move patients who have slightly improved to make space for those who have more serious conditions,” he told local media.

Enrico* is a hospital specialist in the coronavirus wards.

Like Baldi, he believes he has had the virus, although showing few symptoms. Medics in the hospital are now provided with necessary protective gear.

“The disease is unpredictable. Patients are like candles that start flickering, before becoming feeble and eventually going out. Wheezing and shortness of breath precedes death. Patients with several underlying conditions are not taken to the ICUs. We do all we can to accompany them gently into their deaths,” he said grimly, adding there was an enormous sadness around them.

“They are afraid, alone and isolated. It is excruciating to see them dying like this. It is devastating to call their families,” he said.

But with some hope, he noted the number of patients being discharged. Nationwide, of almost 70,000 people infected, more than 8,000 have recovered.

Valentina*, an anesthesiologist in an ICU in Milan, said while her team had protective equipment, colleagues in other hospitals in the city were still tending to patients only with surgical masks.

“We are exhausted, both physically and psychologically,” she told Al Jazeera.

“This disease creates such uncertainties that even those most prepared to face extreme situations and take difficult decisions break under the pressure.”

Performing complex procedures such as intubation while wearing protective gear can be exhausting.

“People keep coming in. You already know some of them, they won’t make it. Patients die of suffocation. What makes it even harder is that there is no end in sight,” said Valentina.

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Gh News

Foxbeatz Made A Lot Of Ghanaian Know That Antonio Rudiger is In Ghana

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A Ghanaian base producer Fox Beatz who has work with some of the A list artist in Ghana,
Like Shata Wale,Stonebwoy ,Wendy Shay ,Sarkodie etc
Spotted with Rudiger jamming to his new song titled Rudiger which has let the world talking about him
Because of the dance moves they both created.

The German and Real Madrid defender, Antonio Rudiger made dance challenge With Foxbeatz after he arrived in Ghana for vacation after a long season with the Spanish giants.
Rudiger landed in Accra on Sunday and will be engaged in a series of activities before returning to Europe for pre-season.
The 30-year-old likes to spend his break in the West African nation before he travels to the country of his origin Sierra Leone for philanthropic work.

In photos shared on social media, Rudiger was spotted with his friends as they arrived at their hotel following a long trip.
The Germany centre-back endured a tough campaign last season, as he played a backup role for regular starter Eder Militao

However, his best game of the season was against Manchester City in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, where he nullified free-scoring forward Erling Haaland.
His absence from the starting line-up in the second leg in Manchester cost Real Madrid as they suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat.
Rudiger ended the season with the Copa Del Rey trophy after Los Blancos defeated Osasuna in the final.

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Gh Musics

4Teen BlancqLiknking – Obotantim Ft Emmanuel (Prod By P.K Musiz)

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Ghanaian Promising Gospel Singer and songwriter 4Teen Comes out with a mind-blowing Gospel Song dubbed Obotan Tim A free Ghana MP3 Download.
Kindly Grab a copy below and share.

4Teen BlancqLiknking – Obotantim

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Gh News

Fares will be automatically adjusted against the increase in fuel prices – GPRTU (See Details)

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Fares will be automatically adjusted against the increase in fuel prices – GPRTU (See Details)

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has announced that prices will automatically be adjusted whenever petrol prices increase by 10%.

The union says a 15% increase in transportation costs will be repeated whenever fuel prices reach 10%.

Richard Yaw Amankwah, GPRTU’s Deputy Secretary-General for Operations, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the union’s decision to estimate transportation costs and fuel prices was intended to benefit the industry.

“We have said that whenever the cost of petrol increases by 10% or more, we will increase fares,” he said.

“We are still looking at the cost. We are just wasting our time. “The same amount will be spent on travel expenses when it reaches 10%,” he told GNA.

On March 1, 2022, the prices of the previous petrol and diesel pump prices increased by 30 liters per liter, to GHC 8.20.
Some market experts predict that if nothing is done to reduce the cedi value of the dollar against the dollar, petrol prices could rise to GHC9.0 a liter.

The price volatility of petroleum products is due to the continued increase of Brent Crude in international markets.

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) predicted a 4% increase in petrol and diesel prices this week, citing cedi performance against the dollar as a major factor.

The IES has ruled that cedi is down 4.11 percent to close GHC6.85 to the dollar in the previous price window.

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) also predicts that prices for petrol, diesel and LPG by 4.6%, 3.4% and 2.5% will increase by 2.5% from March 1, 2022.

In the First Price Window of March 2022, it predicted that petrol and diesel would be GHC8.190 a liter and LPG would be GHC9.163 per kilogram.

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