There's an excellent piece on the Italian situation in the Guardian:
Italy’s large elderly population bearing brunt of coronavirus
Many have underlying conditions, making fight against Covid-19 more complex
Tue 3 Mar 2020 12.54 GMTLast modified on Tue 3 Mar 2020 13.14 GMT
Italy’s large elderly population poses a challenge in slowing the number of coronavirus deaths in the worst-affected country in Europe, a health specialist has said.
The virus has killed 52 people in Italy, all aged between 63 and 95 with underlying serious illnesses.
The death toll, provided by officials on Monday night, marked an increase of 18 in 24 hours. Twenty-three per cent of the Italian population is over 65, making it the oldest in the world after Japan.
“Italy is a country of old people,” said Prof Massimo Galli, the director of infectious diseases at Sacco hospital in Milan. “The elderly with previous pathologies are notoriously numerous here. I think this could explain why we are seeing more serious cases of coronavirus here, which I repeat, in the vast majority of cases start mildly and cause few problems, especially in young people and certainly in children.
“Our life expectancy is among the highest in the world. But unfortunately, in a situation like this, old people are more at risk of a serious outcome.”
There are 1,835 people infected in Italy, and the increase in new cases slowed to 272 between Sunday and Monday. Health workers have carried out 23,345 swab tests, significantly dwarfing the number undertaken in other European countries.
Those tested include Pope Francis, 83, after he was forced to cancel engagements this week because of a cold. He returned a negative result, Il Messaggero newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The majority of cases – 1,254 – are in the northern Lombardy region, where 10 towns have been under lockdown for more than a week. The virus has spread to more than half of Italy’s 20 regions, including Tuscany, Puglia, Sicily and recently Sardinia.
Authorities say the majority of people who tested positive in other regions were travelling from Lombardy or had been in the north for a few weeks before the outbreak.
Of those infected, 742 are in hospital – 166 in intensive care – and 927 are recovering at home. The number of people who have recovered from the illness has more than doubled to 149.
Researchers at Sacco hospital last week isolated a strain of the virus from an Italian patient, which suggests Covid-19 may have circulated in northern Italy for weeks before it was detected.
Galli said: “It has been claimed that the so-called Italian virus is very different from the Chinese one. These are simply rumours. We are currently mapping out the sequences and only afterwards can we know.
“Obviously, since it is an RNA virus, it is expected to be at least a little different from the Chinese one. RNA viruses typically change: between each viral copy and its template there will be a few differences, like a single nucleic acid mutation. But only once we have the sequences can we begin to make comparisons.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/03/italy-elderly-population-coronavirus-risk-covid-19