Mortality rates from COVID-19 in Spain and Italy, Lessons for the UK!

The Covid-19 pandemic brings major new challenges to health services resulting from the lack of a vaccine and from the enormous resources it can consume over a prolonged period. The available control measures are currently limited to quarantining, contact tracking-and-tracing and social distancing. Disease transmission to health care workers is common and deaths among clinical and nursing staff have been reported in the UK (where serious concerns about the availability of personal protective equipment - PPE - have been raised) and elsewhere; particularly in Lombardy, where General Practitioners (Medici di Base) have died in disproportionate numbers.