Coronavirus Red Zone: Italy's stark warning to other countries
As the world watches in disbelief at the rising death toll across the world, Italy is in the grips of a COVID-19 crisis.
Historic cities like Milan are virtual ghost towns as Italians continue to live in lockdown.
Sky News UK Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay travelled into Italy's "Red Zone" to see first-hand, the devastation the virus is causing.
The Red Zone is in the northern province of Lombardy, where Italy has recorded its highest number of COVID-19 cases.
The Red Zone is in the northern province of Lombardy, where Italy has recorded its highest number of COVID-19 cases. Sky News UK
Ramsay visited Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, where many of the infected are being treated. Sky News UK
The epicentre is the town of Bergamo, northeast of Milan, which has recorded the highest rate of infection for the country.
"It is apocalyptic, and of course here they call it the apocalypse," Ramsay says from Bergamo.
"It doesn't feel that life will ever be the same again."
Ramsay visited Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, where many of the infected are being treated.
"There are virtually no visitors anymore, just relatives waiting for news," Ramsay says.
"They can't visit their families, they just have to wait."
The doctors at Papa Giovanni are asking other countries to see what is happening in Bergamo and pleading with them to stay in lockdown before they are faced with the same critical situation. Sky News UK
The hospital has been pushed to its limits, as staff struggle to treat the sickest of COVID-19 sufferers and determine the cause of the insidious virus.
As doctors try to stop people from dying, the sheer number of new cases coming into the hospital is overwhelming.
"This is an absolute constant, this killer pandemic is out of control," Ramsay says.
Everywhere you go there are people on gurneys, in hallways, meeting rooms any spare space on the hospital's grounds.
As the world watches in disbelief at the rising death toll across the world, Italy is in the grips of a COVID-19 crisis. Sky News UK
"It's more a pneumonia than flu – a very severe pneumonia," the hospital's Head of Emergency, Dr Roberto Cosentini told Ramsay.
"Every day we see 50-60 patients coming into our emergency department and most of them are so severe they need very high amounts of oxygen. We are constantly rearranging the hospital to try and deal with the intensity."
The doctors at Papa Giovanni are asking other countries to see what is happening in Bergamo and pleading with them to stay in lockdown before they are faced with the same critical situation.
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