As far as I know Italy also has a hospital culture that is extremely open, e.g. it is common for patients (non-ICU I guess) to get home-cooked meals brought by

As far as I know Italy also has a hospital culture that is extremely open, e.g. it is common for patients (non-ICU I guess) to get home-cooked meals brought by friends and family instead of having a hospital meal. That means that if there is community spread, the very weakest of the elderly, those already hospitalized, will be more exposed than in countries where hospital visits are less common. An extremely cynical view would be that this increases deaths early on but frees up valuable beds for the peak of the wave. (It's painful to just write this)