Director of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Bio-emergencies at the Luigi Sacco University hospital in Milan, Maria Rita Gismondo has claimed that Coronavirus should be over by the Summer.
Coronavirus has wreaked havoc across the globe with there being around 135,000 confirmed cases which has led to the World Health Organisation declaring it as a pandemic situation.
At the moment, Italy has the second most amount of cases worldwide with China, where the virus originated, the only nation with more than them.
The country has been placed in lockdown by the government in a bid to try and contain the virus and prevent it from spreading and the lockdown has resulted in the postponement of all sporting events, including Serie A until at least April 3.
In an interview with Rome based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, which appeared in today’s print edition, Gismondo started by discussing how Coronavirus started in the country.
“It all started in Italy in a hospital, in the one in Codogno where a patient was hospitalised with a respiratory problem, the source of which was unclear.”
She then proceeded to reveal that work has been done since December, way before the first cases were even confirmed in Italy.
“It is plausible to suggest that many cases of pneumonia that occurred in Italy and in the area of Lower Lodigiano after Christmas could be concrete contagions from Covid-19.
“Already at the end of December we started working on the basis of strange pneumonia reported by the World Health Organisation. At the time we had flu symptoms similar to Covid-19.”
She was then asked if athletes are more exposed to the virus.
“Yes. This is because there immune systems are weakened by their intense physical exertion and because they are in changing rooms where the humid ambient heat helps cough or sneeze droplets remain in the air and in the environment.”
In conclusion, she revealed when she thinks it will be over: “If everything goes as planned, in early summer we should be out of the emergency.”
