A doctor in Italy has described the heartbreaking final moments of her patients dying from coronavirus.
Italy is under a dramatic lockdown as leaders try to fight the spread of the deadly virus.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte took the extreme measures as the Covid-19 death toll in the country approaches 500, and other countries look set to follow suit as the pandemic's epicentre moves from China to Europe.
Doctor Francesca Cortellaro, from the San Carlo Borromeo hospital in Milan has given a heartbreaking insight into life on the front-line treating patients struck down by the virus, the Daily Star reports.
Tragically, Italy's overwhelmed hospitals are struggling to save everyone- and Dr Cortellaro has had to watch her patients die in front of her.
She told Italian newspaper Il Giornale: “You know what’s most dramatic? Seeing patients dying alone, listening to them as they beg you to say goodbye to their children and grandchildren.”
Dr Cortellaro went on to say how coronavirus patients arrive on their own, and “when they are about to die, they sense it”.
“They are lucid, they do not go into narcolepsy. It is as if they were drowning, but with time to understand it,” she said.
She described how a dying grandmother had recently asked her to see her granddaughter.
"I pulled out the phone and called her on video. They said goodbye. Soon after she was gone.
"By now I have a long list of video calls. I call it a farewell list."
As of Friday, a further 208 people have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 798.
The Department of Health updated figure on Friday afternoon, hours after Sir Patrick Vallance said at least 60% of the population needs to contact COVID-19 in order to develop "heard immunity."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned "many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time" on Thursday afternoon as the UK moved from "contain" to the "delay" phase over the coronavirus outbreak.
