COVID-19 and the excess of mortality in Italy from January to April 2020: what are the risks for oldest old?

Nicotra, Eraldo Francesco; Pili, Roberto; Gaviano, Luca; Carrogu, Gian Pietro; Berti, Roberta; Grassi, Paola; Petretto, Donatella Rita

In February 2020, Italy has been the first country in Europe fighting against COVID-19. In March 2020, Italian government declared national lockdown. Until May 4th, people stayed in home confinement and only the so-called "essential works and activities" were continued. Like in other countries, both for the disease severity and for the risk of death, the higher the age of people the higher the risk. In the first months of 2020, Italy saw a very high number of deaths related to COVID-19, with a huge age effect, and there is an agreement on the view that there had been also an excess of mortality and on the role of mortality as a correct way to reflect the dynamics of the virus's spread. In this paper we briefly discuss the trends of mortality during the first 4 months of 2020 according to the data by the Italian National Institute of Statistics.