For doctors in northern Italy, fighting what is still Europe’s worst outbreak of COVID-19, the frontlines have moved beyond hospitals as special teams try to keep patients alive at home, away from the saturated wards where thousands have died.
Soraya Ali reports.
Meet Doctor Giulia Villa -- one of the Italian health workers on the frontline of the crisis.
Except the frontline isn't just the hospitals here.
It's about keeping people alive at home.
She's in the Northern Italian city Bergamo -- still one of the worst hit areas in the world -- part of a special unit of doctors working to ease the strain on its saturated hospitals.
Here’s what she told us: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DOCTOR GIULIA VILLA PART OF USCA TEAM, SAYING: "It has been a tough experience and it still is.
We saw so many people who needed to be hospitalised very quickly but the problem was...The ambulance service just couldn't keep up with all, I'm sorry, they just couldn't keep up with things quickly enough.
And so normally we were the first people who arrived and tried to give the first phase of assistance to these people." Hospitals in Italy's Lombardy region were on the verge of collapse -- unable to keep up with the number of cases.
Set up a month ago, Doctor Villa and her unit have now made over a thousand house calls.
One vital service they provide is delivering much needed oxygen.
Canisters were low in supply -- but a switch to liquid oxygen by suppliers has made it easier to provide.
Dr Villa says the personal toll has been enormous -- the teams deal with sick and frightened people, either struggling for life or preparing to watch a family member die.
But after every visit Dr villa must continue her work - she leaves, carefully replaces her gear -- and prepares for another day.
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