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?:abstract
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The coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic started in Italy by the end of January 2020 and, after 1 month, it affected 1049 persons Based on the Italian Ministry of Health data, we reconstructed the daily course of virus-positive cases and deaths over March 2020 for the whole of Italy, 19 regions and 2 provinces From 29 February to 31 March, there was a 100 9-fold increase in the cumulative number of cases and a 428 6-fold increase in the number of deaths in Italy When plotted on a semilogarithmic scale, the curves tended to diverge from linearity with 23%, 16%, and 7% average daily increases during the three decades of March Similarly, the number of deaths decreased from an average daily growth of 19% over the second decade to 10% over the third decade The correlation coefficients relating the days to cases or deaths over each one of the three decades approached unity As inferred from the equations of the regression lines relative to the three decades, the doubling times of cases were 3 4, 5 1, and 9 6 days, respectively The doubling times of deaths over the second and third decades were 4 9 and 7 0 days, respectively There was a broad geographic variability, with a striking gradient from the North, where 40 8% of cases and 57 9% of deaths occurred in Lombardy, to the South On the whole, over March there was a trend to epidemic growth decline but the time for the end of the epidemic will depend on a variety of factors and, at present, it is unpredictable
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