Italy’s Famous ‘Patient 1’ Discharged – But He Is Still Surrounded By Mystery

The wife was discharged in early March while Mattia’s father died of the disease last week.

– Mattia is simply the personification of the coronavirus in Italy. Everyone has followed his medical history and he has had all over Italy as a cheer choir while he was in a coma and struggling to survive. Everyone feels they know him, even though we have never seen a picture of him or know his last name, says TV 2 correspondent in Italy, Eva Ravnbøl.

“Stay home”

Mattia woke up from her coma ten days ago and is now declared healthy.

He used his discharge from the hospital to make a call to his countrymen:

Stay home. Only in this way can the spread of infection be reduced. I’ve been lucky because I’ve been treated. But if the epidemic runs smoothly, there will not be enough staff and beds for everyone, and it will cost lives. Then stay home, the message from Mattia sounded when he got home.

Mattia, who is looking forward to becoming a father in a few weeks, came at the same time with an encouragement:

– You can be cured of this disease, he emphasized in a sound recording, which was published by the hospital in Lombardy where he has been hospitalized.

Mystery of patient 1

There are a number of unanswered questions about Mattia’s role as “Patient 1” in Italy.

He is the first to be tested and found to be infected with coronavirus, but it is still a mystery how he himself has been infected.

In February, the 38-year-old marathon runner was several times in the emergency room with unexplained symptoms. Only when his wife, in passing, told the hospital’s health staff that Mattia had eaten lunch shortly before with an acquaintance who had just returned from Shanghai, was given the idea of ​​testing him for coronary infection.

And the test was positive.

Don’t know the source of infection

Later, surprisingly, it turned out that the friend, who had been to Shanghai, was tested negative. So it has never been clarified how Mattia has been infected.

He had been in the hospital on several occasions and in contact with various teams of doctors and nurses. In the end, he had been in the hospital for 36 hours before finding out that he was the coronary infection. So he has infected the hospital staff, says Eva Ravnbøl.

She emphasizes that all guidelines were adhered to throughout. You just didn’t think it could be a coronavirus.

Mattia is an atypical patient.

Both in terms of being young and healthy, and in the fact that he has not traveled or otherwise been at a known risk of infection.

Decrease in infection rates

His discharge is an encouragement on top of another encouragement. Namely, the infection rates in Italy are showing signs of falling for the first time.

The mood has changed here in Italy. First, we were through a period of mood of unity where people sang from the balconies. But in the past three to four days, when the daily death toll has increased dramatically, there has been a near-apocalyptic downfall, Eva Ravnbøl says, and continues:

Now there is an encouragement with slightly positive numbers, showing a decrease in the daily number of infected. It is not yet the end, but the drastic measures appear to be bearing fruit.

Source: nyheder.tv2.dk