Letter from Rome – Italy at the Crossroads

ROME, Jun 14 2021 (IPS) – Italy, as other countries, has been struggling to balance the health and economic challenges posed by COVID-19. Controlling the spread of the virus implied restrictions on economic activity, on school and college attendance, and on personal movement. It also had to deal with the economic and social implications of a fall of almost 10% in GDP. This has been hard for a country which, even before the pandemic, was one of the slowest growing economies in Europe, with unemployment, especially among young people in the South of the country, at alarming levels.

Daud Khan

So far the Government main response to the economic crisis has been to try to spend it…

Covid-19 Deaths: 1 Million and Surging

Face masks hanging on window bars in Havana, Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

NEW YORK, Oct 1 2020 (IPS) – Covid-19 deaths worldwide have surpassed . With of coronavirus infections rapidly mounting again, the numbers of Covid-19 deaths are to surge in the coming months. 

It took approximately 40 weeks to reach the first million Covid-19 recorded deaths. Some have the second million Covid-19 deaths to take about 10 weeks, arriving in late December, and the third million to take an additional 4 weeks, arriving in late January.

Approximately 60 percent of the 1 million Covid-19 deaths to date have taken place in 6 countries (Figure …