In Italy’s South, War Zone Doctors Are Called to the Rescue Amid Covid-19 Upsurge

Italy’s troubled south, which was largely spared earlier on in the pandemic, is now struggling to cope—so much so that the government is turning for help to a medical charity used to working in war zones. The Milan-based nongovernmental organization Emergency is best known for assisting war victims in countries such as Afghanistan, or Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. It has now agreed to help confront the crisis in Italy’s poorest region of Calabria, where the dysfunctional health care system is ill-equipped to deal with a viral outbreak.