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With over 28,000 people in the hospital, including more than 4,000 in intensive care, the beds need to be released as soon as possible, and those unable to isolate themselves at home have been transferred to special foster homes or hotels.
The virus has already infiltrated care facilities across the country in what is being called the "silent massacre". Hundreds of people in foster homes are feared to have the disease - over 600 in the heavily hit region of Bergamo - although exact data are impossible to find, with many victims reportedly not being tested, experts say.
They have voiced serious concerns about the safety of 300,000 residents in 7,000 care homes in Italy. "In a war like this, we cannot expose ourselves to the risk of repeating new outbreaks that threaten to turn care homes into 'biological bombs' that spread the virus," said Raffaele Antonelli Incalzi, head of Italian society of geriatric SIGG. AFP.
"The widespread use of nursing home beds to relieve pressure on hospitals ... would endanger older residents and they are the weakest social strata in this pandemic," he said.