The health conditions of Cardinal Bassetti positive for covid improve
Italian Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti showed slight improvement in his fight against COVID-19 despite taking a bad turn earlier this week and, although his condition remains severe, he has been transferred from an intensive care unit.
According to a November 13 statement from the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital in Perugia where he is being treated, Bassetti's general clinical condition has "slightly improved".
His "respiratory and cardiocirculatory parameters" are stable and, according to the Italian news agency SIR, the official information body of the Italian bishops, he has now been moved out of the ICU and back into the urgent care wing where he was when it was admitted for the first time on October 31st.
Despite the small improvement, the hospital said its treatment plan is "unchanged" and it is receiving "continuous oxygen therapy".
At the end of October Bassetti, archbishop of Perugia and president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, tested positive for the coronavirus and was hospitalized in Santa Maria della Merc, where he was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia and consequent respiratory failure related to COVID-19.
On November 3, he was transferred to intensive care, where earlier this week, on November 10, he suffered a "general worsening" of his condition.
His improvement was greeted with relief by his auxiliary bishop of Perugia, Marco Salvi, also suffering from COVID-19, but asymptomatic.
In a November 13 statement, Salvi said he received the news that Bassetti is leaving the ICU "with satisfaction", calling it a "comforting" update.
However, Salvi noted that while Basseti's condition has improved, "his clinical picture remains serious and the cardinal needs constant monitoring and adequate care."
“For this it is necessary to continue to pray incessantly for our parish priest, for all the sick and for the health workers who take care of them. To these goes our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for what they do every day to alleviate the suffering of so many patients “.
On Tuesday, after receiving news that Basseti's conditions were worse at the time, Pope Francis made a personal call to Salvi to get an update on Basseti's health and to assure his prayers.
Concern is growing in Italy that a second national blockade is inevitable as coronavirus numbers continue to grow. On Friday, the Campania and Tuscany regions were added to Italy's growing list of "red zones" as coronavirus cases in the country rise.
The regions have been divided into three zones: red for the highest risk, then orange and yellow, with restrictions that increase in severity the closer the regions get to red. Other regions currently referred to as "red zones" are Lombardy, Bolzano, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Calabria.
As of Friday, Italy has recorded 40.902 new infections - the highest daily total ever recorded - and 550 new deaths. The country has now had over a million total cases of COVID-19 and more than 44.000 total deaths since the outbreak began last spring.
Bassetti, a trusty appointed by Francis, is one of many cardinals who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since it first broke out last year.
Others include the Italian cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar of Rome, who is healed; Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, Archbishop of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and president of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), who has recovered; and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, who was asymptomatic.
Like Salvi, Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan also tested positive but is asymptomatic and is currently in quarantine