Covid Italy, 639 deaths from contagion at work since the beginning of the pandemic

The deaths from Covid 19 in Italy at work reported to Inail at the end of last month were 639, about one third of the total deaths at work reported to the Institute since January 2020, with an incidence of 0.5% of the total of national deaths from new coronavirus registered by the ISS on the same date. This is what emerges from the 17th national report on infections in the workplace from Covid-19 prepared by the Inail Statistical Actuarial Consultancy. Compared to the 600 cases detected by the monitoring of the previous month, the fatal cases are 39 more, of which eight in May, 11 in April, five in March, two in February and two in January 2021, four in December and three in November of last year, while the remaining four deaths are attributable to the previous months. The ‘second wave’ of infections, which in the workplace can be limited to the period October 2020-January 2021, with 59.6% of reported infections had a more intense impact than the ‘first wave’ of the period March-May 2020 (29.0%). In the four-month period February-May 2021, 8.4% of the complaints since the beginning of the pandemic are currently recorded. Last November, in particular, with 40,029 reports is the month with the highest number of infections of professional origin, and precedes March 2020, which with 28,600 cases is in second place for the number of infections reported. The ‘first wave’ of the pandemic, on the other hand, had a greater impact than the second for deaths: 55.0% of fatal cases, in fact, were reported to Inail in the quarter March-May 2020 (30.2% in the month of April) compared to 29.6% in the quarter November 2020-January 2021, a percentage that rises to 41.5% if we consider the period November 2020-May 2021.The majority of deaths from Covid infections at work concern men ( 83.6%) and workers in the age groups 50-64 years (72.3%), over 64 years (18.5%) and 35-49 years (8.4%), while among the under 35 0.8% of fatal cases still emerges from the report. By extending the analysis to all the infections at work from Covid-19, the relationship between genders is reversed. The female share of the total number of complaints, in fact, is 68.8%. The number of infected workers exceeds that of workers in all regions, with the exception of Calabria, Sicily and Campania, where the incidence of women on the complex of infections of occupational origin is, respectively, 48.5%, 46. , 2% and 44.4%. The average age of the infected since the beginning of the epidemic is 46 years for both sexes (59 for the deceased). 42.5% of the total complaints concern the 50-64 age group. This is followed by the 35-49 age group (36.7%), under 35 (18.9%) and over 64 (1.9%). 86.3% of the complaints concern Italian workers. The remaining 13.7% are foreigners, mainly concentrated among Romanian workers (equal to 21.0% of foreign infected), Peruvians (12.8%), Albanians (8.1%), Moldovans (4.5%) and Ecuadorians (4.2%). Nine out of 10 deaths are Italians (90.3%), while the foreign community with the most reported deaths is the Peruvian one (with 14.5% of fatal cases of foreign workers), followed by the Albanian one (12.9%) and Romanian (9.7%). The territorial analysis, also deepened through the regional cards, shows a distribution of Covid complaints on work of 43.2% in the North-West (first Lombardy with 25.6%), 24.5% in the North- East (Veneto 10.6%), 15.1% in the Center (Lazio 6.5%), 12.6% in the South (Campania 5.7%) and 4.6% in the Islands (Sicily 3, 1%). The provinces with the highest number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic are those of Milan (9.7%), Turin (7.1%), Rome (5.2%), Naples (3.8%), Brescia, Verona and Varese (2.5% each), and Genoa (2.4%). Milan is also the province that records the highest number of occupational infections that occurred in the month of May alone, followed by Rome, Naples, Turin, Messina, Venice and Florence. The provinces that recorded the greatest percentage increases compared to the April survey are, however, those of Vibo Valentia, Reggio Calabria, Salerno, Lecce, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, South Sardinia, Messina, Pordenone, Bolzano, Grosseto, Terni, Cosenza, Brindisi and Catanzaro. Taking into consideration only the deaths, the percentage of the North-West drops to 40.2% (first Lombardy with 28.3%), while the South, with 24.4% of fatal cases reported (Campania 11.6 %), against the 12.6% found on all complaints, precedes Center (17.1%), North-East (12.7% compared to 24.5% of total complaints) and Islands (5.6%) . The provinces that count the most deaths since the beginning of the pandemic are those of Bergamo, Milan and Rome (with 7.5% each), Naples (6.9%), Brescia (4.7%), Turin (3.8%) %), Cremona (3.0%), Genoa (2.7%), Caserta and Parma (2.5% each). The vast majority of Covid infections and deaths at work (97.1% and 89 respectively, 8%) concerns industry and services, with the remaining cases distributed in insurance management on behalf of the state (central state administrations, state schools and universities), agriculture and navigation. In particular, there are about 2,700 infections of professional origin of teachers, professors and researchers of schools of all types and levels and of state and private universities, attributable both to the management of employees of the State account and to the education sector of industrial management and services. The health and social assistance sector, which includes hospitals, nursing and retirement homes, institutes, clinics and university polyclinics, residences for the elderly and disabled, is always in first place among the productive activities with 65.9% of the reports and 25.1% of codified fatal cases, followed by the public administration (activities of the bodies responsible for health, asl, and regional, provincial and municipal administrators), with 9.2% of infections and 10.4% of cases deadly. The other sectors most affected are rental and business support services (surveillance, cleaning and call center), transport and warehousing, second in number of deaths with 12.8% of the total, manufacturing (employees in the processing of products chemicals and pharmaceuticals, press, food industry), accommodation and catering services activities, wholesale and retail trade, other service activities (funeral home, laundry, repair of computers and personal goods, hairdressers, wellness centers), and professional, scientific and technical activities (labor consultants, company logistics, business management consultants). With the resumption of activities many professions have seen an increase in the incidence of infections between the first two phases of the pandemic, a reduction in the third and a new increase in the fourth. This is the case, for example, of the operators and employees in the restaurant business (which went from 0.6% in the first period to 3.7% in June-September, to 0.6% between October and January until 1, 3% between February and May 2021), of the artisans and specialized workers of food processing (from 0.2% to 4.3%, from 0.1% to 0.6%) and of the employees of the security and surveillance services and custody (passed from 0.6% to 1.6%, then to 0.9% up to 1.8% in the last four months).